Dear Editor,
Quote from the December 24th Sunday Stabroek news report: “A key finding of the report after assessing similar PSAs from around the world is that the Stabroek PSA has the lowest Average Effective Tax Rate (AETR) of “government take”.
Last summer Darshanand Khusial (Guyanese-born, lives in Toronto) and lots of other folks including attorney Melinda Janki – wrote letters in SN urging the release of the Oil Contract. Sometime later, The 1999 Contract was published in SN. (SN apparently got a leaked copy – not from Government.)
Mr. Khusial alerted many of us to something highly irregular regarding the article and clauses on Taxation. He said it appeared the Oil company would not be paying any tax at all. GoG receives its share of oil – and out of that share GoG must pay the tax on behalf of the Oil Company.
I have asked repeatedly in blogs and in letters calling on Oil Minister
Trotman to clarify – and if possible – renegotiate this contract. Corporate
Tax must be paid directly by the Oil Company to the Government of Guyana.
It now appears the Contract had been re-negotiated – all done in secret and still hidden from the public. And, Mr. Trotman is still playing hide and seek. As a Guyanese citizen I am still left to wonder: Would ExxonMobil be paying any Corporate tax directly to GoG? And, further, is there any transparency at all in this new oil industry?
Yours faithfully,
Mike Persaud
