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ExxonMobil’s tax sand castle
Kaieteur News – American oil giant, ExxonMobil, with a strong hand from Guyana’s politicians, succeeded in building a castle made of straw and sand. The tax deal that the APNU+AFC Coalition and ExxonMobil signed off on in 2016 is such a sandcastle. The tax deal, a sweetheart sub deal, in the bigger oil deal, that is perpetuated by the PPPC Government is that same sandcastle. One good kick and the grains scatter, the whole tax setup, this shaky tax scheme, crumbles.
Since the discovery of oil, Guyana’s massive national patrimony has been clouded in controversy and secrecy. The 2016 ExxonMobil-Guyana oil contract is itself the handiwork of some people whose liberty should have been taken away a long time back. For in that contract, there is that sweet billion-dollar tax giveaway that ExxonMobil arranged and finalized for itself at the expense of every living Guyanese. When the prospering US oil giant is partnered with by successive Governments of Guyana to continue with that costly tax deal, then nothing less than a crime has been committed against citizens here. We at this paper are convinced that this tax swindle is an injustice. What is an injustice, if not something that is in existence that has the touch of crime about it?
Despite pleas from a cross-section of Guyanese for the government to take action and reverse that tax gouging by ExxonMobil, national leaders have been a study in denial, have presented a face that is all for the US company, and nothing for Guyanese citizens. When ExxonMobil is given license not to pay some US$10B in taxes so far, then there are only one set of victims punished by that heist, that loss, i.e., Guyanese citizens. The politicians in the APNU+AFC Coalition Government didn’t care, were reckless and irresponsible beyond what the imagination is capable of, when there was signing of that oil contract in 2016 with ExxonMobil that impoverished Guyanese. Politicians in the PPPC Government promised to strip all contracts of their fat, (“review and renegotiate”), which had to target ExxonMobil’s tax game, only for them to walk back on what would have done right by struggling citizens. US$10B in taxes given away is a gift that this country cannot afford, but all that craven Guyanese politicians focus on is how to please ExxonMobil, so as to retain power.
Guyanese politicians have earned the worst of dirty reputations for their trickiness and impotence. There are still, however, some US politicians who can smell rats when they are present, and know a con game when it is in operation. Three US senators are concerned about ExxonMobil’s manner of conducting business in Guyana, particularly its tax dealings, and how Americans could be left holding a bag. They don’t like what they see so far, so they want to know more. When the three senators from the Democratic side of the aisle get what they asked for from ExxonMobil’s CEO, Darren Woods, it is almost guaranteed that they will take issue with the tax farce that has been playing out in Guyana for years. The Guyana Government pays the tax that is due from ExxonMobil, which then claims a credit from the IRS in America, for what it didn’t pay a cent.
We don’t know what kind of response, and how much detail, the three US senators will receive from ExxonMobil’s Woods. But of one aspect of this whole tax con there is certainty. The tax con game will be given some broad exposure before a large US audience, and a bigger global one. Guyanese don’t care when they are being ripped off by their own governments working in tandem with foreign corporate partners. However, Americans are cut from a different cloth, having been gouged and made into paupers, from time to time, by Wall Street hustlers, and powerhouses in Corporate America. Enron gouged its workers and left taxpayers with a huge bill. In the financial conflagration of 2008, reputable companies were part of a big rip-off from which some US citizens are still recovering.
Unlike Guyanese politicians, some US politicians care about such developments, and when they do, they spring into action. The Guyana-ExxonMobil tax scheme stinks, and demands the sharpest scrutiny, exposure, possible.
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And we wonder, EXXON got a tax free pass of $10 Billion US in Guyana,
why is GRA going after a paltry $380 million Guyana, from Azruddin , the
newly elected opposition leader ?
And, did the Government of Guyana actually transferred, write a check, an
IOU to GRA for Exxon’s free tax liability ? There should be paper trail, or
electronic trail ?
This is where BOG Governor Gobind comes in. And, Gobind needs to
uplift the grill facade of BOG, as the original golden paint has seen better days.