Latest update January 9th, 2025 4:10 AM
Latest News
- Gov’t fearful of what investigation of lopsided oil contract would reveal- Chris Ram
- Hess hopes govt. 7th oil project will be approved by April
- ‘Ceasefire, captives deal in Gaza ‘very close’—Blinken
- Guyana protests as Venezuela plans to elect governor for Essequibo
- Woman dies while relaxing in car with boyfriend
Our major political parties may have received as much as US$46.5M from the oil companies
Dear Editor
One of the acts from which the PNC cannot absolve itself is authorising the signing of the Exxon Contract in its current form.
Upon examining the losses, it has incurred to Guyanese by signing that contract, there is little question that PNC has made itself a national disgrace and unworthy of the administration of our nation’s affairs. The PPP for itself has been following the PNC lock-step on the contract, and itself has also become a national disgrace.
Both the GoG-Exxon contract and our major political parties are of great value to Exxon for three major reasons: 1. The absence of ring-fencing which gives it a blank check to spend on additional exploration activities, 2. The punitive two percent royalty it pays compared to the six percent recently achieved by Suriname. Lastly and especially however, the PNC have been such nitwits that in addition to granting Exxon tax-free status in Guyana, they also agreed to provide tax receipts to Exxon which it can produce to the IRS in America, thus allowing tax-free profits both here and in America, subject to whatever guidelines avail in the US for the taxation of foreign income.
This probably stands as the precedent globally for a country actively participating in defrauding a domicile country of tax revenues. Indeed, I have described our situation in my book as follows: Governments around the world know that they have never seen such stupidity in government. They know the traits of inept, corrupt third world politicians selling out their country. Because there is no government which would ever agree to paying the income taxes of a multi-billion-dollar energy corporation. But the PNC and PPP have.
Thanks to Vice News however, we know that our major political parties aren’t entirely stupid. Exxon does have to pay something to get tax-free income from its operations here, plus the GoG-issued tax receipts, plus the knock-off two percent royalty, plus the blank check on spending on further exploration activities deriving from the absence of ring-fencing.
We have done some work on trying to estimate how much Exxon is paying our major political parties under a variety of payment scenarios, just to let Guyanese get a feel of what’s at stake for them, Exxon, and the major political parties. The adjacent tables show estimates of how much Exxon may have paid to date under a few simple scenarios. Underlying these is that scandals around the PNC regarding its signing of the Exxon contract, its attempt to upturn the 2020 elections and its mistreatment of sugar workers make it virtually impossible to regain control of government for quite a few terms.
If Exxon had agreed to a two percent payout on the benefits of the contract, our political parties would have received a total of US$46.48 million since production started. However, as petty third-world politicians, the PPP would think that US$20 million is a lot of money, so they might just have taken around US$10 million in exchange for the US$2.3 billion they handed Exxon so far. (This converts to G$2.1 billion. They might have even taken around US$7 million alone – My estimate.) The PNC on the other hand might be getting just US$4 million or US$5 million. Remember these guys aren’t very smart and don’t want to sin big by taking a larger amount, so they would settle for these amounts.
If we consider that the oil companies paying the PPP and PNC US$3 million and US$1 million every year to keep the contract in force, Exxon would have paid the PPP around US$15 million since 2020, with the PNC receiving US$5 million for the same period. From 2025 to 2050, using the same payment structure, the PPP should receive around US$78 million (G$16.38 billion), with the PNC getting an estimated US$26 million (G$5.46 billion) respectively from Exxon. These numbers show that government is big business in Guyana, the billions of US dollars which our major political parties are giving away to Exxon for a pittance, and your vote means a lot to you in 2025. Know where you are placing your ‘X’ in 2025.
Yours faithfully,
Craig Sylvester,
Party Leader, DNC
(Our major political parties may have received as much as US$46.5M from the oil companies)
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
Jagdeo’s policies were a disaster
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- Bharrat Jagdeo’s proclamation of his party’s approach to reducing income inequality... more
Forget Begging Rich Nations: Caribbean Countries Should Act to Save Themselves
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- It has long been evident that the world’s richest nations, especially those responsible... more
Weekend Cartoon
