PART X. TAX ON USE OF NATURAL RESOURCES
Chapter 30. General Provisions
Article 190. Purpose for establishment the tax
The purpose for establishment the tax is:
a) ensuring of rational use of natural resources based on the principle of potential and steady development of the environment by the inculcation of payable use of natural resources;
b) promotion of financial ensuring of reproduction of natural resources and their protection in the form of charging of the state budget of Georgia.
Article 191. Notion of the tax
The tax is a direct tax payable for the use of state-owned natural resources (except land resources).
Chapter 31. Payers of the tax on use of natural resources and object of taxation
Article 192. Tax payers
Payers of the tax are all physical and legal persons engaged in any activity subject to a license for the use of natural resources.
Article 193. Object of taxation
The object of taxation is the volume (quantity) of the extracted natural resources located in Georgia (including territorial waters, airspace, the continental shelf, and a special economic zone), in particular:
a) the volume (quantity) of the extracted mineral resources;
b) the volume (quantity) of timber obtained from the forest fund;
c) the volume (quantity) of fir-tree cones collected;
d) the volume (quantity) of obtained water resources;
e) the volume (quantity) of the animal world resources.
Chapter 32. Amount of the Tax on Use of Natural Resources and the Procedure for Payment
Article 194. Tax rate
1. The amount for the use of entrails:
a) the limited tax amount for the use of basic types of mineral resources are determined according to the following table:
Types of mineral resources |
Limits of tax amount as Percentage against the prices of the extracted minerals |
Oil, gas |
5-10 |
Coal |
2-5 |
Peat and sapropel |
2-5 |
Ferrous metals: Iron manganese |
1-3 2-7 |
Nonferrous metals (cooper, lead, zinc, antimony, cadmium, strontium, etc.) |
3-5 |
Precious metals (gold, platinum, silver) |
4-6 |
Rare metals, elements and lands |
2-5 |
Mining-chemical raw materials (andesite, barite, calcite, bentonite clays, diatomite, iodine, bromine, etc.) |
1-5 |
Non-mining raw materials for metallurgy, including necessary raw materials (dolomite, fireclays, fluxing limestone, silica sands for sand moulding, mineral dyes, talc, zeolite, kaoline, pegmatite, lithographic, limestone, etc.) |
1-8 |
Precious stones |
4-6 |
Building materials (cement raw materials, gypsum, plaster, pearlite, facing stone, gravel, sand, brick clays, sawn stone, etc.) |
2-5 |
Mineral waters |
1-10 |
Sludge |
5-15 |
Carbon dioxide gas |
2-10 |
Underground thermal waters |
1-15 |
Underground sweet waters |
2-8 |
Waste of extraction and processing of mineral Resources |
0.5-3 |
Tailings of mining production |
1-5 |
b) the concrete amount of the tax on the use of mineral resources within the tax limits indicated in point a) of the first item of this Article according to basic types of mineral resources, their quantity and occurrence, is determined by the Interdepartmental Council of Experts for Licensing the Use of Entrails and enters the entrails use license; the concrete tax amount is defined as a percentage of the price of mineral resources (without VAT).
c) the procedure for determination of the price of mineral resources is worked out and approved by the Ministry of Economy of Georgia in agreement with the Ministry for Protection of the Environment and Natural Resources of Georgia.
2. The tax amount for the use of timber resources of lumber wood:
a) the tax amount for the use of timber resources of lumber wood of the forest fund is determined in accordance with a category of the timber kinds met on the lands of the forest resources of Georgia established by law by their commercial quality pursuant to the following table:
Wood timber kind group |
Category |
Tax amount of one cubic meter of timber as percentage against the market price
|
||||
Hewn timber (narrow trunk |
Firewood |
|||||
(including names of kinds) |
Thick More |
medium |
thin |
(unsawn) |
||
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
|
Group I Yew, box-tree, juniper, Zelcova, walnut-tree |
1 2 3 4 5 |
34 30 26 22 18 |
30 26 22 18 14 |
26 22 18 14 12 |
10 8 8 6 4 |
|
Group II oak-tree, chestnut, ash-tree, elm, maple |
1 2 3 4 5 |
30 26 21 18 16 |
26 21 18 16 14 |
21 18 16 14 13 |
8 6 5 4 3 |
|
Group III beech, hornbeam, oriental hornbeam, hackberry, plane-tree |
1 2 3 4 5 |
20 16 12 10 8 |
16 12 10 8 6 |
12 10 8 6 4 |
4 3 3 2 2 |
|
Group IV pine, fir, silver fir, cedar, cypress, thuja |
1 2 3 4 5 |
13 10 8 6 5 |
10 8 6 5 3 |
8 6 5 3 2 |
2 2 2 1 1 |
|
Group V Other kinds of wood timber |
1 2 3 4 5 |
10 7 6 5 4 |
7 6 5 4 3 |
6 5 4 3 3 |
3 2 2 2 1 |
|
b) the market price for each group of timber kinds is determined in accordance with the tenth item of Article 27 of this Code;
c) the tax on use of kinds included in the Red Book of Georgia is payable only in exceptional cases: during cutting of trees being dead because of pathological diseases, unrooted trees as a result of snow-drifts and storms, trees cut in connection with the building of highways, electric lines, pipelines, hydro-technical structures. The tax on the use of this kind is also used for calculation of the damage resulting from the illegal cutting of trees.
3. The tax amount for the use of fir tree cones:
a) the tax amount for the use of fir tree cones resources on the forest fund territory of Georgia is determined as 10 percent in regard to the market value of fir-tree cones;
b) the market value of fir-tree cones' resources is determined in accordance with the tenth item of Article 27 of this Code.
4. The tax amount for the use of water resources:
a) the amount for the use of water resources is differentiated according to water object groups under the following table:
Groups of water objects (including names of water object kinds) |
Tax rate per one cubic metre as percentage against the market price |
Group I. (Mtkvari with tributaries, communicated lakes and other surface water resources) |
10 |
Group II. (Black Sea water) |
5 |
Group III. (other surface water objects) |
3 |
b) the tax amount for enterprises of the thermal energy and irrigation system is one percent of the basic amount, and for of hydroenergy producing enterprises - 0.1 percent of the basic amount;
c) the market price for each group of water objects is determined in accordance with the tenth item of Article 27 of this Code.
5. The tax amount for the use of the animal kingdom resources:
a) the tax amount for the use of the animal kingdom resources (objects) is determined according to species distributed in Georgia under the following table:
Groups of animal world objects (including names of species of the animal world) |
Tax amount (per individual unit of mammalia and birds, fist and sea animals per ton) as a percentage against the market price of the resources |
Group I (bear) |
35 |
Group II (wild-boar) |
20 |
Group III (fallow-deer, deer) |
45 |
Group IV (wolf) |
25 |
Group V (jackal, fox, badger, chamois, raccoon dog, raccoon, wild cat, coypu rat) |
15 |
Group VI (hare) |
10 |
Group VII (Caucasian goat, chamois) |
55 |
Group VIII (other mammals) |
5 |
Group IX (pheasant) |
35 |
Group X (partridge, wild goose, wild duck) |
25 |
Group XI (snipe, double snipe, woodcock, quail) |
20 |
Group XII (other birds) |
10 |
Group XIII (khamsa (anchovy family)) |
2.5 |
Group XIV (sprat, whiting, herring, mackerel, scomber, sardine) |
2.0 |
Group XV (grey mullet, barbel, gudgeon, murtsa, shemaia (local varieties), sheat-fish |
3.0 |
Group XVI (white amur, tolstolobik (carp family) |
2.2 |
Group XVII (carp, chub, brea, caspian roach, pike) |
1.8 |
Group XVIII (white fish, pelyad (white fish family)) |
1.5 |
Group XIX (katran) |
4.0 |
Group XX (river trout, lake trout, salmon family) |
3.5 |
Group XXI (sturgeon family) |
5.5 |
Group XXII (shell-fish, mollusca) |
2.5 |
Group XXIII (other fishes and sea animals) |
1.0 |
Group XXIV (other wild animals under the threat of extinction) |
30.0 |
b) the market price for each grouping of the animal kingdom species is determined according to the tenth item of Article 27 of this Code;
c) the tax on the use of the species included in the Red Book of Georgia is used for calculation the damage incurred from illegal hunting and fishing.
Article 195. Procedure for tax payment
The tax on the use of natural resources in paid not later than the fifteenth of the month following the accounting month. The tax on the use of water resources in agriculture is paid not later than the first December of the corresponding year. Within the same term, tax payers produce to the tax bodies calculations of the tax according to their residence, using the established form.
Chapter 33. Tax Privileges and Exemption from Taxes
Article 196. Tax privileges and exemption from taxes
l. Free from taxation are the used and extracted natural resources which are connected with the care, protection and restoration operations during which wood timber is used and fir-tree cones gathered, the volume (quantity) of mineral resources in the course of the construction of the underground, water-supply, canalization systems, underground constructions.
2. The tax rate shall be reduced by 70 percent;
a) for user of natural resources whose activities are connected with scientific, and cultural and educational activities;
b) for users of natural resources that have carried out the restoration or replacement of natural resources from their own funds within the limits of the volume (quantity) of the restored (replaced) resources.