The Standing Committee on Justice, Law and Human Rights heard submissions made by the Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation (FCEF) and the Mining and Quarry Council (MQC) of the Income Tax Bill 2015.

Council chairman Greg Morris spoke with regards to Part 6 of the Bill that deals with mining.

One of the points raised was regarding the current carry forward tax losses provisions which Morris says are too restrictive and should be reverted to the 8 years as was the case prior to 2012.

“The Mining and Quarry Council would like also expenditure incurred around exploration around an existing mine operation should also be allowed to be included in the operating mine. That’s how a company grows its resources and looks to the viability of its operations.”

Under section 91 of the Income Tax Bill the rate of non-resident withholding tax applicable to a non resident subcontractor is 15%.

Both FCEF and MQC feel that the rate of withholding is too much by international standards and recommends the rate applicable to non-resident subcontractors should be 5%.

Committee chairman Ashneel Sudhakar says while there were some fruitful discussions, there were a lot of technical terms used and their submission will be looked into further.