Four years have passed and the government is yet to release the oil companies’ tax certificates it promised

In Canada, it is estimated that the average family pays 42% of their income in taxes (see https://tinyurl.com/bdapxsrt). Corporations also pay taxes which range across the provinces, but in large provinces like Ontario, the corporate rate works out to about 23.5%. People in Canada receive significant benefits from taxes, such as unemployment insurance, subsidized dental care…

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Some questions that Alastair Campbell should have asked the President

Alastair Campbell, co-host of the political podcast The Rest is Politics, asked in the new episode of Leading—featuring President Irfaan Ali – some important questions about the country’s low-carbon strategy, management of the sovereign wealth fund (including the Norway model), corruption in the wake of the oil boom, and Guyana’s position on the Venezuelan border…

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The next Parliament must replace this lopsided oil contract

Article 15.4 (a and b) in the 2016 Petroleum Agreement (page 39: https://www.oggn.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Oct2016-Petroleum-Agreement.pdf) has the condition that the Minister agrees that the appropriate portion of the Government’s share of Profit Oil  shall be accepted by the Minister as payment in full of assessed taxes by the consortium (EMGL, Hess, CNOOC). This constraining requirement that mandates the government…

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Guyana ought to have insisted on an equal tariff regime consistent with that derived by other CARICOM states

Reference is made to Mr. Roger Ally’s recent letter, “Government/GMSA did a great job” (Stabroek News, August 8, 2025). He extensively cites from my letter of August 3, where I argued that small states should act through supranational organizations when facing powerful nations. Unfortunately, Mr. Ally omits a key fact while praising the Government’s achievement…

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Sale of forest carbon credits is legitimate only if there is a policy and associated activities to add more forest area, or accelerate the growth of trees

Is Guyana trying to join the ‘carbon cowboys’ who hoodwink politicians and incautious citizens into paying for what Nature provides at no cost to humanity?  Guyana’s natural tropical rainforests are in dynamic equilibrium.  What they breathe in and photosynthesis by day, they mostly respire back to the atmosphere by night or lose through natural decay…

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