Freeport pays Indonesia 1.8 billion dlrs in 2007

Source: AFP

Freeport Indonesia – JAKARTA (AFP) – The local Indonesian unit of US mining giant Freeport said Monday that it paid the government here 1.8 billion dollars in 2007 amid soaring commodity prices and solid production.

Freeport said that besides the amount paid for corporate income tax, employee income tax, regional taxes and levies, it also paid 216 million in dividends and 164 million dollars in royalties to the government.

The annual amount was 12.5 percent up on the 1.6 billion dollars the company, which is believed to be Indonesia’s most significant taxpayer, paid in 2006, it said in a statement.

The payment amount fluctuates due to changes in commodity prices, sales and metal production levels.

Freeport said it had paid a total of 6.9 billion dollars to Jakarta from 1992 to 2007, in line with fulfilling its financial obligations under a 1991 contract with the Indonesian government.

“In the past two years our production has been good and commodity prices have also skyrocketed,” Mindo Pangaribuan, a Freeport spokesman, told AFP.

Freeport Indonesia is 81 percent owned by US-based Freeport McMoRan. The remaining stakes are shared equally between the Indonesian government and company Indocopper Investama.

Freeport Indonesia operates a huge gold and copper mine in Indonesia’s easternmost Papua province.

Environmentalists have accused the mine of polluting the World Heritage-listed Lorenz National Park and dumping copper-rich ore around the edge of its operations. The firm disputes the claims.

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