DECREE NO. 314 OF 1920 (FEBRUARY 11). DEVELOPING LAW 120, 1919, ON HYDROCARBON DEPOSITS. The President of the Republic of Colombia, in the exercise of his legal powers DECREES: Article 1. For the purposes of the second paragraph of Article 1 of Law 120. 1919, the term " 'asphalt" shall not be construed to include any low grade petroleums or solid compounds of hydrogen and carbon yielding or containing more than a twenty-five per cent (25%) of liquid hydrocarbonated substances. When any product exported as asphalt does not come under such condition it shall pay petroleum taxes. The Ministry of Public Works shall make the necessary regulations in order to enable Custom Houses to supervise the enforcement of this provision. Article 2. Any petroleum extracted from asphalts and consumed within the country shall pay the exploitation tax established in the law. Article 3. The determination of distances for the classification of the zones referred to in Article 2 of the law, shall be made in a straight alignment, taking as a starting point the sea shore in the port from whence the products shall be exported. Article 4. On making a lease-contract, the Government, when fixing the taxes that must exceed the minimum fixed by law, shall take into account the greater or lesser facilities found within the respective zone for the exportation of oil deposit products. Article 5. All superficiary taxes shall be paid annually by depositing these sums in the General Treasury of the Republic, or in the Administration of National Finance (Administracion de Hacienda Nacional) of the respective Department, not later than thirty days after due. The stipulations contained in the final part of the first paragraph of Article 2, Law 120 of 1910 in regard to lands ceded or awarded, such as public lands after the 28th of October 1873, shall also apply to such lands as may be ceded or awarded in the future. Article 6. When the exploitation tax is paid in kind, it shall be paid at whatsoever date the Government may deem convenient, according to the quantities of petroleum products on hand within the tanks or storage places referred to in Article 30 of the aforementioned law, and if the taxes are paid in currency, such payments shall be paid semiannually in the first fifteen days of January and July of each year. Article 7. The Consul General of Colombia and the Bureau of Information and Propaganda in New York shall advise the Government on the first of each month by cable, in regard to petroleum prices, as determined by quality and kind. Article 8. By virtue of the declaration of public utility made in Article 9 of the Law in favor of all hydrocarbons and pipe line exploitation industries, and because petroleums are by the law taxed with special charges, any oil company or pipe line construction company shall be exempt from the payment of any river taxes for any material intended to be used by them in their works or for any product of oil exploitations that may be subject to exploitation tax. Article 9. The establishment and exploitation of pipe lines shall be the subject of a special regulation (by-laws), as soon as the data and survey reports have been completed for such purpose. Article 10. The Government shall be empowered to grant the licenses referred to in Article 12 of the law to different persons on the same tract of land. On granting each license a period not longer than one year shall be fixed in which the plans and reports referred to in the above Article must be presented; at the expiration of this period the license shall be considered as withdrawn. Article 11. For the purposes of Article 17 of the law, the character of the discoverer of the oil deposits shall be established by the usual methods in legal procedure. Article 12. It is the duty of all Governors, Intendentes, or Prefects, Alcaldes, and Corregidores (mayors of small towns), to enforce compliance with Paragraph 3 of Article 17, of the Law and to furnish to the Government all necessary reports, in order that it may prevent any private exploitation of hydrocarbon deposits situated on lands that may belong to the Nation by any title what soever. Article 13. For the purposes of Article 24 of the Law, no lessee who may have acquired the right to develop bicarbonate deposits in one department, intendencia, or comisaria can lease any contiguous zone belonging to any department, intendencia, or comisaria, except for the extent necessary to complete the three zones referred to in said Article. Article 14. The Government shall apportion among the several Departments or municipalities, should such be the case, any portion or share established by Article 34 of the Law, whenever the same deposit under exploitation may include any land belonging to different Departments or municipalities. Be it enacted and published. Given in Bogota, February 11, 1921. (signed) MARCO FIDEL SUAREZ. ESTEBAN JARAMILLO. The Minister of the Treasury, acting as Minister of Public Works. The congress of the Republic of Ecuador decrees the following transitory provisions: Art. 1. Petroleum deposits not yet adjudicated according to law belong exclusively to the State; and no individual may make entry thereon until such time as the new law on the subject shall be enacted. Accordingly further action on the filing of entries already made is forbidden, until the enactment of the new law, and all entries on which the definitive right of the claimant shall not have been completed shall confer neither title nor preference, except as may be granted by the new law. Art. 2. Should payment of the patents not be made within the term fixed in the mining code, the right that had been granted shall be forfeited ipso facto, without prejudice to the obligation to pay amounts already due and unpaid. Art. 3. The right of adjudicators who, within the term of two years, reckoned from the date on which the present law goes into effect, have not begun to develop the deposits granted them, shall likewise be forfeited. ipso facto. Art. 4. Until such time as the new law shall be enacted, rights formerly granted to petroleum deposits shall neither be alienated nor transferred by any method inter vivos. Art. 5. Petroleum deposits shall pay as a license fee an annual amount on the gross output of each mine. This proportion, which shall not be less than 5% nor more than 10% shall be fixed for each oil zone by the Executive Branch of the Government, at the beginning of each fiscal year. Art. 6. This law shall go into effect from the day of its publication in the Official Gazette. QUITO, October 18, 1919. PETROLEUM TAX. Pursuant to Article 5 of the legislative decree approved October 18, 1919, the Executive under the power conferred, decreed a tax on petroleum as follows: Art. 1. To fix for the present year of 1920, six per cent of the gross proceeds of each one of the petroleum mines in operation at the present time, as the value of the tax on such mines. Art. 2. The petroleum mines that are not being worked shall pay the tax in the manner established in the general regulations of the mining code. Art. 3. The petroleum mines that are in operation at the time of the promulgation of the present decree, shall be recorded in a register that will be kept in the office of the governor of each province. Art. 4. With the certificate of registration, the producers shall obtain the respective permits in the office of the treasurer of each province for the number of gallons of petroleum that they desire to move. Art 5. These permits shall be issued in duplicate and be disposed of as follows: The original shall be delivered to the conveyer of the article for presentation in the office of the customs guard, if the petroleum is intended for exportation, or to the collector at the place of consumption. The employee of the customs guard, on finding the shipment in order, shall remit the pernit to the fiscal collector of the canton into which it is being shipped, for the collection of the respective so much percent. The two stubs shall be retained by the fiscal collector of the canton where the mine is located, who will send one of these stubs to the office of the treasurer of the province into which the petroleum shall have been shipped, in order to establish the due supervision between what was received by the customs guard or collector and what was despatched. The other copy shall be retained in the office of the collector of the canton where the mine is situated. Every shipment not covered by this permit, as also the excess in the mobilization, shall be considered as contraband, and therefore subject to the penalties established in the law. Art. 6. The permit shall be issued by the Ministry of the Treasury, the same as other fiscal business. Art. 7. The payment of the six percent on the gross proceeds shall be made by computing the price per gallon of petroleum on the basis of the market price for the article in the market of Guayaquil, at the time of the movement. Art. 8. The administrators of customs shall not give despatch to the petition of exportation if not accompanied by the certificates of having paid the corresponding tax to the fiscal collector mentioned in article 5 of this decree. Art. 9. Mines placed in operation after the promulgation of this decree shall first be recorded in the register of the governor's office; if a mine should be placed in production before this formality is complied with, it shall be considered as a case of contraband. Art. 10. The Ministers of the Interior and of the Treasury are charged with the execution of the present decree, which becomes effective from this date. Given in Quito, the 24th day of January, 1920. |