Off the wire
• Slovenian music band becomes first Western one to give concert in DPRK  • Scientists: Gene resists drought and disease, increases crop yields  • AU voices concern over situation in northern Mali  • China keeps closer eye on water quality near blast site  • Mayor accepts responsibility for Tianjin blasts  • 20 killed in blast, clashes with IS militants in Iraq's Anbar  • Food security still critical worldwide: EU study  • Roundup: Palestinian on hunger strike draws ire on Israeli detentions  • U.S. stocks open lower ahead of Fed minutes  • S. Africa to impose harsher penalties for infrastructure related offences  
You are here: 　 Home

Roundup: Lithuania to increase tax on amber extraction

Xinhua, August 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

Lithuanian government approved on Wednesday the initiative to increase taxes for amber extraction in Lithuania.

The initiative was put forward by the Ministry of Environment which proposed a 44-fold increase in taxes for a kilogram of amber pieces larger than 40 millimeters, ELTA news agency reported.

Lithuanian government on Wednesday endorsed corresponding amendments to the Law on Tax on State Natural Resources.

Based on existing legal acts, one kilogram of extracted amber is taxed by 20.22 euros.

The ministry proposed to increase the tax to 280 euro per kilogram of amber pieces of up to 40 millimeters and 900 euro per kilogram of pieces of over 40 millimeters.

According to Daiva Matoniene, vice minister of environment, valuable minerals are being taxed at minimum 15 percent of their market value in other countries of the European Union, however, the corresponding tax in Lithuania was set in 1992 and amounts to just 5 percent of the market value.

However, Rimantas Sadzius, minister of finance, expressed his doubt about the proposed tax. "I would not agree with this proposal, as why we should exclude amber; it undermines the system of tax on all resources," Sadzius was quoted by local website vz.lt.

Based on preliminary estimates, there are approximately 112 tonnes of amber in Lithuania's Curonian Spit resort Juodkrante deposit.

If the newly proposed rates are applied, 20 years of exploitation of the deposit would bring the country 41 million euros in revenue.

If approved by the parliament, the amendments will come into force in early 2016.

Due to geopolitical situation, Lithuanian businesspeople are no longer issued to import raw amber from Russia's Kaliningrad Region, which holds 95 percent of the world's known amber resources.

In 2014, Lithuanian Geological Survey under the Ministry of Environment received several Lithuanian companies' requests for searching and extracting amber in the Amber Bay in Juodkrante resort.

Amber is considered to be one of the biggest treasures of Lithuanian nature.

Baltic amber is fossil resin produced by pine trees which grew in Northern Europe about 50 million years ago. The resin was washed out of the forest floor by large rivers and transported south towards the sea. In the course of time the resin was transformed to amber. Endit