Jack D.
Wealth delayed is wealth denied. The multi-billions of dollars being denied Timor Leste by some of the world’s richest and filthiest mining companies is a murderous crime against the Timorese people, who are among the world’s poorest of nations.
It is
denying thousands of Timorese adequate health care, infant care, aged care,
education, housing and the like. Many, many lives are being lost, the future
for thousands of children is deliberately being limited as the greedy companies
maximise profits.
The amount owing to East Timor, or Timor Leste as it is known in the country, could be as much as $US 3 billion, once interest and penalties are added to the unpaid taxes.
“As of
today if they do not provide us all the justification, there’s a potentiality of
[it] going up to $3 billion,” East Timor Finance Minister Emilia Pires said.
A
forensic audit of tax payments over the past 18 months has found what the
government claims are multiple underpayments of tax by the resource companies.
These companies include the US oil giant ConocoPhillips and Australia's own
Woodside Petroleum.
“Since we
started auditing - and we only started auditing in the beginning of 2011, so
within a year and a half since then to now - we've recovered or collected about
$362 million,” Ms Pires said.
Only in
2010 did East Timor get the right to have the financial records of the oil and
gas companies operating in the Timor Sea held in Dili. It was a year later that
a specialised tax task force was put together in the nation’s finance ministry
to begin forensic auditing investigations. It then began uncovering just how
much money the nation is potentially owed in unpaid taxes.
Of the
dozens of cases of tax underpayment so far discovered, 28 have been settled for
a total of $362 million. Several of the companies involved are appealing in the
Dili District Court against the tax reassessments of the East Timorese
government.
Fraud and
theft in maximising profit
In cases
now before the Dili District Court, lawyer Pierre Prosper, for the Timor Leste
government, has submitted that companies have “improperly deducted costs” from
taxes due to the government.
“Around the world multinational companies always fight for their interests and they fight tooth and nail; it’s their job - they have shareholders,” Mr Prosper said.
“There
was no enforcement because there wasn't capacity, so it was up to the companies
to do the job of following the letter of the law.
“What we
are saying is that we noticed some deficiencies and... the government has begun
to push back, enforce and regulate.”
Timorese
fight back against mining con-men
Mr
Prosper said, “We expect the fight to get even harder, because we're talking
about a lot of money, but what's changed here is that Timor is fighting back.”
The task
before the audit team is enormous, trawling back through five years of tax
returns and financial documents, looking for illegitimate claims. Ms Pires
explains the type of problems they are seeing with many of the companies’ tax
returns.
“When we
are doing an audit we are asking them, ‘OK show us the receipts, tell us if you
say that this cost you, just as an example $100 million, then give me the
receipts for $100 million’ and they're struggling,” she said.
“They’re
not able to give us... the total cost of what they said they claim that they’ve
spent. Now that’s a bit of a problem.”
Recently
re-elected East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao agrees that the companies
need to pay their dues. “I believe that companies will be aware that they have
to pay, and under the rules, under the laws they have to pay the tax,” Mr
Gusmao said.
Support
East Timorese against these thieves
We, in
Australia need to take action against these thieving mining companies. We know
from our own experience just how rapacious these bastards can be. Wherever
there is any opportunity at all, we should expose this bastardry of the miming
companies involved in ripping off Timor Leste with demonstrations, marches,
sit-ins and other forms of action.
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