Latest update December 4th, 2024 2:40 AM
Amend laws to halt abuses by big foreign companies – Dr. Roopnaraine
Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine
Large foreign companies seem to have a “calculated approach” when it comes to Guyana’s mining and forestry sectors.
Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)’s Shadow Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources, asserts that some foreign businesses would attach themselves to some local investors who would have worked tirelessly to acquire benefits and concessions, pretending it would seem, to be just a harmless partnering foreign investor. But the hidden motive is to eventually take over the business and expand.
From his observations, Dr. Roopnaraine who is a member of the Natural Resources Sectoral Committee of the Parliament deems this to be abusive behaviour by “big foreign companies.” He said that consultations will be made with the Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, Robert Persaud, to make the “necessary amendments” to the relevant Acts so that this behaviour can be curbed.
Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine said that this is just one of the unresolved issues coming out of last week’s Committee meeting.
In an exclusive interview with Kaieteur News, Dr. Roopnaraine said, “There are unsettled matters and I don’t think we can cover all the issues in a single meeting, but we have further questions and other issues that we would want to probe a little bit more, and the Minister of Natural Resources, Robert Persaud, made it clear that he is open to being invited again. We have to meet as a committee and assess what we have heard, and if it is necessary to have more information from them, we will invite him.”
The APNU Parliamentarian added, “One of the things we need to probe a little more deeply and consult with the Minister about is the necessary changes that need to be made to the Mining and Forestry Acts.”
Roopnaraine explained that some foreign conglomerates seem to have a “particular manoeuvre where they come into Guyana and identify the local licenced operators in the mining and forestry areas and attach themselves to the local investor as a partnering foreign investor.”
Eventually, the “big companies”, he said, end up “gobbling up the benefits and concessions enjoyed by the local investors and sooner or later they take it over.”
“That whole practice is abusive and should be looked at more carefully and it’s a manoeuvre only by the big companies…Bai Shan Lin doesn’t have permits to do a lot of things…Big companies go to a local investor with his thriving business and say that they are an overseas investor and decide they are working along with them, so with this mechanism they are able in effect to monopolize a lot of the forestry activity, and it’s something we have to look at because our laws presently permit it.”
As it relates to other unresolved issues, just recently, APNU’s Shadow Minister of Public Works, Joseph Harmon insisted that although BOSAI signed a contract “with slack contractual terms” with government, certain clauses of the contract stipulate that it has to pay royalties.
Harmon says he maintains his position that the bauxite company owes millions of dollars in royalties to Guyana and called on them to satisfy the nation by disclosing how much taxes it paid.
Harmon made reference to the agreement signed between the Chinese Company and the Government of Guyana. The agreement the politician related, says that after the first five years which can be described as a tax holiday, any year in which the taxes paid by the company exceed the amount of royalties to be paid, it would have been exonerated from the payment of royalties.
Harmon continued, “The royalties is 1.5 percent of the bauxite exported. Now if the company is saying that they have nothing to pay, then they should state how much taxes were paid and how much bauxite was shipped. They have to prove that.”
The Guyana Revenue Authority, he said, had explained that it would not be providing that information as it is a personal relationship between them and the taxpayer.
He added, “It is that tax payer who should get access to that information and satisfy Guyana that it has paid that amount of taxes to be exempted from paying royalties. It is a simple matter and I have told this to the Minister of Natural Resources, Robert Persaud and the company. This is simple Mathematics.”
Harmon is of the opinion that BOSAI owes over US$5M from royalties of bauxite produced, but Government is not having much success in collecting it.
BOSAI Minerals Group has categorically denied owing royalties to Guyana.
GGMC is expected to make a decision on the matter before Saturday.
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