Cash-strapped Petrotrin currently owes the Government $2.75 million.
The figure was given by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley last night in his address to the nation.
Rowley explained that due to the decline in petroleum prices and impact of the concessions, some petroleum companies have paid no corporation taxes over the last two years, which included Petrotrin.
“The chronic, financial difficulties at Petrotrin have further exacerbated this problem, because although Petrotrin produces over 50 per cent of the country’s oil, it is not paying its oil royalties and taxes in any timely manner, or at all, which is an unacceptable state of affairs that will not be allowed to continue in 2018,”
Currently Petrotrin, Rowley said owes “the Government $2.75 billion of which $588 million is SPT, a tax that only becomes due during times of high oil prices, yet it was not paid then,” Rowley said.
What this meant, Rowley said was that even as oil prices have rebounded somewhat, the structures in place conspire to ensure that the Government obtains precious little consequential increase in revenues.—Shaliza Hassanali