Latest update February 22nd, 2025 5:49 AM
Latest News
- $277.9M Mabaruma Magistrates’ Court commissioned at Mabaruma
- Min. Indar scolds contractors over unsanctioned works days after VP Jagdeo called out ministry’s shoddy management of construction sites
- White House expects Ukraine to sign critical minerals deal soon
- Simplify cash grant distribution processes
- Peacemaker chopped after intervening in argument
BP uses taxation tricks on T&T, must pay back $1B
TT’s Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Rowley
The Government of Trinidad and Tobago has been able to get British Petroleum (BP), the largest natural gas operator within its shores, to pay TT$1 billion (US$150M) it owes the state in outstanding claims.
An agreement to this effect was signed on April 30, last, between TT’s Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Rowley and BP’s senior Executives.
The pact clearly states that the energy giant will repay the CARICOM member state “upwards of $1 billion” as a means of compensation for the accounting techniques it used to keep rightful revenue away from TT’s national purse.
The company also agreed to pay premium royalties from 2018 to 2020, even though it is not legally obligated to for that period.
Rowley said, “Once you are extracting our heritage, you have to pay the royalty.”
This would mark the second time that BP was caught using taxation tricks against T&T. In 2011, former Prime Minister Kamla Persad- Bissessar was able to get BP to pay the Government over TT$1 billion in back taxes.
BP was praised for “exercising its good conscience” as the Persad-Bissessar-led government had noted that “other oil companies would not have been as cooperative and just.”
She had also praised BP for “honouring its commitment to return to the table whenever corporate tax issues” were detected.
Considering the aforementioned, concerned Guyanese have wondered if the Government of Guyana would be able to defend the State in a similar fashion, should ExxonMobil be caught in a similar position.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
The clock and the cloud
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- Time, as the ancients knew, is a trickster. It slips through the fingers of kings and commoners... more
CARICOM Nations Should Respond Together To new U.S. Policies
By Sir Ronald Sanders Ambassador to the US and the OAS, Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News-Two Executive Orders issued by U.S.... more
Weekend Cartoon
