Fears investors abusing tax breaks

GUINEA’S government was considering reviewing tax breaks given to mining companies, because foreign investors might be abusing the incentives, Budget Minister Mohamed Lamine Doumbouya said. The west African nation, which has the world’s largest bauxite deposits, waived more than 2 trillion Guinean francs (R3 billion) of income over the past five years because of exemptions on mining equipment and building material imports, Doumbouya said. While the mining industry was expanding at an annual rate of 23 percent, some of the tax breaks were affecting state revenue too severely, he said. “The losses are enormous,” Doumbouya said in the capital, Conakry. – Bloomberg