Reference is made to the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance’s press statement on March 17, 2025, in response to the Oil and Gas Governance Network (OGGN) request for tax information made under the Access to Information Act, and Mr. Christopher Ram’s Stabroek News Column dated March 21, 2025, titled “the Ministry of Governance and Parliamentary Affairs has it all wrong”. In particular, reference is made to an assertion that Mr. Ram proffered in his column in response to the Minister that:
“The Ministry’s response to the Oil and Gas Governance Network was factually incorrect and legally flawed. It claimed that companies in Guyana are required to file their tax returns with the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority. This is false – tax filings are made at the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), not the Deeds Registry. Either the Ministry does not understand essential corporate compliance, or it is deliberately misleading the public. That is a deliberate prevarication…”
In the above statement, Ram has skillfully deflected from and ignored altogether the core issue that the Minister addressed and her main contention. The minister made two (2) key points: that (i) the tax certificates of companies and/or any taxpayer for that matter—are confidential information in accordance with law, therefore, cannot be made available to third parties, and (ii) that notwithstanding, the tax information being sought from the OGGN group can be extracted from the oil companies’ financial statements and annual return, which are required pursuant to Sections 153 and 156 of the Companies Act, Cap. 89:01, to be filed with the Deeds and Commercial Regis-tries, from where anyone can obtain those filings. Notably, the failure to make these filings with the Commercial Registry can result in the company being struck off the register in accordance with Section 487 of the Companies Act, Cap: 89:01. And if a company is struck off the register, it means that that company shall cease to exist as a legal entity.
Relatedly, I also wish to address another letter by the OGGN that was published in the Stabroek News edition of March 23, 2025, titled “questions for AG on conflict between 2016 PSA and NRF Act (2021) on tax payments on behalf of oil companies”. The issue concerning the tax payment that the government is to pay on behalf of the oil companies in accordance with the 2016 Petroleum Agreement is a simple matter, that is being unnecessarily complicated by the OGGN and others. As such, I wish to simplify to the best of my ability hereunder, not that the OGGN and the others (usual suspects) will accept and appreciate the explanation, but it is more so for the benefit of the wider public readership.
The current production of oil and gas in the Stabroek Block by ExxonMobil Guyana (EMGL) and their co-venture partners, CNOOC and Hess, is governed by the 2016 Petroleum Agreement, signed by the APNU+AFC Government. The fiscal terms contained therein that the Government of Guyana receives—constitute a 50% profit sharing and 2% royalty.
Article 15 of the Petroleum Agreement states that…”no tax, value-added tax, excise tax, duty, fee, charge or other impost shall be levied…” This essentially means that the oil companies have benefited from a tax waiver from corporate income taxes, thanks to the former APNU+AFC Government. Article 15 (a) goes on to state that “a sum equivalent to the tax assessed pursuant to Article 15.2 and 15.3 will be paid by the Minister to the Commissioner General to the Guyana Revenue Authority on behalf of the Contractor and that the amount of such sum will be considered income of the Contractor”; and (b) “that the appropriate portion of the Government’s share of profit oil delivered in accordance with the provisions of this Agreement shall be accepted by the Minister as payment in full by the Contractor of Contractor’s share of each of the following levies, whatsoever, rate of such levies may be, which the Minister shall then pay on behalf of the Contractor under Article 15.4 (a) to the Commissioner General, Guyana Revenue Authority”.
The main reasons why the 2016 Agreement was framed in the manner above, with such language in respect of payment of taxes are that: (i) the APNU+AFC Government had agreed to grant a tax waiver to the oil companies given that they have entered into a profit sharing and royalty Agreement as the fiscal conditions, and (ii) in the case of the US oil companies, under the US tax laws, profit sharing agreements are not recognized as corporate taxes from which they can submit to the US tax authorities—to benefit from the tax credits that are applicable to US companies for taxes paid in other non-US jurisdictions. Hence, according to Article 15.3 of the Petroleum Agreement (2016), the profit share paid to the Government of Guyana is treated as the taxes paid by the US oil companies in Guyana, and it is this sum that the tax certificate in question is based on.
Against this background, it therefore means—simply that all the questions raised by the OGGN for the AG to answer are non-issues. It is a simple matter that does not need to be complicated. The profit share paid to the Government is the sum that is treated as the oil companies’ taxes paid in Guyana, and that sum, is no secret. Guyana’s share of revenue from profit oil and royalty are fully reported on and disclosed, vis-à-vis, the Natural Resource Fund Reports and the gazetted reports thereto. A perusal of the oil companies’ financial statements will also confirm that the profit share due to the Government is reported on the financial statements as the oil companies’ tax liabilities.