Western Australia says BHP owes up to $ 215 million in underpaid royalties on iron ore



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MELBOURNE (Reuters) – The state of Western Australia announced Monday that an audit had revealed the presence of a global group of miners, the BHP group Underpaid royalties on iron ore shipments sold through its Singapore marketing center date back more than a decade.

BHP quickly disputed this badertion, claiming that long – standing deductions that it had taken to account for the cost of selling iron ore from Western Australia had been systematically audited and accepted by the company. State in the calculation of the amount owed by the world's largest miner in the form of royalties.

State Treasurer Ben Wyatt told reporters on Monday that underpayments amounted to about A $ 200 million – A $ 300 million ($ 143 million – $ 215 million) the period 2004-2016.

"The state government is negotiating with BHP to solve the problem in the best interest of the state," Prime Minister Mark McGowan's office said in a statement.

In its own statement, BHP said the mining department of Western Australia had recently questioned the traditionally accepted deductions for costs.

"It is worrying that payments to the previously controlled and accepted government are being reviewed and that BHP is working with the Mines Department to address this problem," the paper said.

In November, BHP reached an agreement to pay $ 390 million in additional taxes to the Australian government to settle a long-standing tax dispute over Singapore's miner's mine hub based on its 2003 revenues. to 2018.

(1 $ = 1.3961 Australian dollar)

(Report by Melanie Burton, edited by Kenneth Maxwell)

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