AFTER going through a two-year period devoid of funds from the bauxite production levy placed on companies in the mining sector, the Government is once again buoyed by projections of $2.5 billion in earnings from this arrangement in the current and upcoming fiscal years.

Minister of Finance and the Public Service Dr Nigel Clarke explained that between 2019/20 and 2021 the bauxite levy to the country was zero, but things picked up in 2021/22 when $2.4 billion was collected, which included sums from previous years.

Clarke, who was responding to questions raised by Opposition spokesman on mining Phillip Paulwell during Wednesday’s Standing Finance Committee of Parliament, said this year “has been one of the better years for the bauxite levy, in the sense that we are expecting to collect $1.2 billion from the bauxite levy”.

“So that [$1.2 billion] is with respect to payments from other periods that are coming into this period with payment terms that have been agreed with some of the bauxite mining companies…It’s a reduction from the previous year. The previous year, we had one company in particular where there was bauxite levy that was due over a number of years and that came into the previous fiscal year,” he said.

The Government is also projecting to earn another $1.3 billion from the bauxite levy next year.

In January last year when the matter of non-payment of the levy by the bauxite/alumina companies was previously discussed in the House, Clarke had said there was an evaporation of support for the levy by the bauxite industry, which was linked to the fact that the communities in proximity to the bauxite mining and production areas continue to be “communities in need” despite their efforts.

“The Government is prepared to address that. That is something that we ought to do. But, as minister of finance, I disagree with any form of air-marketing, which often lead to wastage, and over the last couple of decades we have seen examples of that,” Clarke told the House at the time.

“What I think is absolutely necessary, is that, as the bauxite levy revenues come in and a concerted effort is made to ensure that the communities from which this precious resource flows, that if their needs are with respect to water, for example, these needs are addressed,” added Clarke.