Venezuela to 'modify' windfall tax on oil firms
Venezuela to 'modify' windfall tax on oil firms
News Wires
28 January 2013 19:35 GMT
Venezuela is changing its oil windfall tax bands under which the government raises income for social spending and other purposes, Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Monday according to a report.
Widening a previous sliding scale, state company PDVSA and foreign partners will have to pay the state 20% of income from sales of oil between $55-80 per barrel, 80% between $80-100, 90% between $100-110, and 95% over $110, Reuters reported.
President Hugo Chavez, currently battling to recover from cancer surgery, first introduced a windfall tax in 2008 of up to 60% on revenues from oil prices over $100 per barrel, based on the ideas of Nobel Prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz.
In 2011, the taxes were racheted up to a maximum of 95% for oil over $100, bringing in timely extra revenue before last year's presidential election that Chavez won.
The OPEC member's oil sector has been the driving force of Chavez's socialist reforms, contributing funds to a wide array of education, health, housing, sports and other programs.
At a news conference, Ramirez added that PDVSA and Rosneft agreed in recent days to an investment plan of $37.7 billion until 2021 to develop various projects in the Orinoco belt to produce 1.1 million bpd.
http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article1315304.ece
(Short article, no more at link.)