Opinion
The Underground Economy in two Parts
Part I: When Business Disputes Expose Underground Networks Introduction The leak of an explosive March 25, 2025, interview between businessman Azeem ‘Junior’ Baksh of Gold Target Imports and intrepid journalist Travis Chase has triggered more than just a public clash between wealthy businessmen. Baksh detailed what he described as a “harrowing” gold importation scheme, claiming…
Guyana’s Crude Oil Extraction Value (2020-2024)
Crude Oil Extraction Value by Year Crude Oil Extraction Value (2020-2024) $43.5B Total Value 1,590% Growth (2020-2024) $18.0B Peak Year (2024)
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…
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…
Oil as an election issue
Every Man, Woman and Child in Guyana must become oil-minded – Column 166 Today’s column compares the role of oil and the 2016 Petroleum Agreement in the 2025 election campaign and in 2020, the first year of oil production. Then Bharrat Jagdeo and Irfaan Ali were seeking to unseat the APNU + AFC Coalition. The…
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…
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…
Lessons for Guyana from Liechtenstein
Early on Friday morning, August 1, 2025 – notably Switzerland’s National Day – there was a rude awakening for the Federal Council, Parliament, and the public. President Trump imposed a new punitive tariff of 39% on Swiss exports to the United States, citing allegedly massive export surpluses. For now, pharmaceutical products – which account for…
Trump’s tariff scorecard: 15% on Guyana, Trinidad and Venezuela. 10% on other CARICOM countries and Cuba
IntroductionOne day before Guyana observed Emancipation Day, the mercurial universe Boss Donald Trump confirmed his April 2 Liberation Day Executive Order to unilaterally impose tariffs on every country trading with the United States of America. The US President imposed on Guyana’s products entering the United States a 15% tariff beginning next week – a blow…
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…