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Article: Ecuador accuses foreign oil firms of underpaying pipeline taxes.
- Article from:
- The Oil Daily
- Article date:
- July 14, 2009
- Author:
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The president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, has announced that he wants to renegotiate a contract with an oil pipeline operator owned jointly by a number of foreign oil firms.
Speaking during a Saturday radio address, Correa alleged that pipeline operator OCP had avoided income tax for years by financing its operations with loans from its corporate owners at excessively high rates of interest. According to Correa, some of the loans carried rates of up to 21%.
The interest payments were included in OCP's operating costs and reduced the company's tax bill by holding down profits. Correa alleges that the company also inflated its investment expenditures in a ...