"Regalías: 3 proyectos para cambiar el cobro", published in Diario de Cuyo (Province of San Juan) on 02/23/2010

Three bills were presented by the legislators of the Province of San Juan in order to increase the royalties established in the national law. José Luis Gioja agrees with such modification.
At present, the law establishes a royalty of up to 3% -each Province can decide what percentage to charge without exceeding such amount- over the shaft value of the mine, that is to say the price at which the company sells the mineral, minus production costs.
National deputy Daniel Tomas and senator César Gioja propose different modifications despite belonging to the same political party.
Tomas, who has the advantage of being chairman of the Mining Commission of the House of Representatives, presented yesterday his idea to charge 3% of the turnover, instead of the shaft value.
Tomas' bill exempts companies with a turnover under 1 million pesos a year from the royalties' payment.
On the other hand, César Gioja is preparing a project, which he shall submit on March, in order to establish a variable royalties system. Other laws from mining countries are being studied in order to establish the percentages, always keeping the mine shaft value criteria. The senator explained that the royalty percentage is determined by the type of mineral exploited - "one thing is to pay for gold and another one to pay for limestone", as well as by the size of the company. This coincides with Tomas' bill regarding a special treatment for medium and small-sized enterprises (PyMEs) for their entrance to mining.
Mauricio Ibarra, an opposing member of the House of Representatives, is also working on a project that he plans to submit in March, as soon as the ordinary sessions begin. Ibarra coincides with Tomas' bill in changing the calculation from the shaft value to the turnover. Instead, he suggests establishing a value of 7%.