Occupation fee.
Section 241
SEC. 241. Occupation fee. — Any locator, holder, or occupant of any mining claim shall pay to the Collector of Internal Revenue in advance, upon the expiration of the period of two years from the date of the registration of the claim in the office of the Mining Recorder, and on the same date every year thereafter, an annual occupation fee of one peso per hectare, or fractional part thereof, until the lease covering the mining claim shall have been granted. Fifty per centum of all the fees collected under this section shall accrue to the province, and fifty per centum to the municipality in which the mining claims are located: Provided, That in case the mining claims are located in a chartered city, the full amount shall accrue to the city concerned. Failure to pay the occupation fee herein required within thirty days after demand shall cause the mining claims to be open to relocation and lease by other persons qualified to locate and lease the same under the provisions of the Mining Act, in the same manner as if no location of the said mining claims had ever been made, unless the locator, holder, occupant, his heirs, executors, administrators, or legal representatives, shall have paid the delinquent occupation fees and have resumed occupation of the claims before relocation by other persons. No lease shall be granted on any mining claim until the occupation fees required to be paid under this section shall have been fully paid: Provided, however, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to extend the period of four years within which application for lease of a mining claim shall be filed from the date of the recording of the claim in the office of the Mining Recorder, as provided for in the Mining Act.