Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Military junta Myanmar reportedly received hundreds of millions of dollars from French energy company Total. This is related to the sale of gas with a financial scheme linked to exploited pipelines.
Quoted AFPThis report was first published in the daily Le Monde, Tuesday (4/5/2021). Total is linked to the junta, as it collaborates with the military-controlled Myanmar Oil and Gas Company.
Both have shares in the Moattama Gas Transportation Company (MGTC). The company has a pipeline connecting the Yadana gas fields and Thailand.
MGTC itself was founded in 1994. The company was founded in Bermuda.
Bermuda, in the North Atlantic region, is an offshore financial center. Where there are minimal standards of business law, regulation and direct taxes for individual or corporate income.
With no corporate income tax, Bermuda is a very popular tax evasion location. This is also said to make Burma’s domestic tax revenue inappropriate.
It is known, through this scheme, the junta directly received money from MGTC gas transportation worth US $ 523 million (Rp 7.3 trillion) in 2019. This figure is far different from the claimed US $ 11 million (Rp 158 billion).
“The scheme reduces the amount of royalties received by the state because gas transportation is subject to a lower tax,” said Le Monde.
Launching the same media, Total also opened his voice. The company says it does not know the “exact reason” why MGTC was founded in Bermuda three decades ago.
Total also promised that the company “will no longer include new subsidiaries in tax havens”. In addition, the formation of separate companies to exploit pipelines and transport gas is not uncommon, similar arrangements exist in the North Sea and other countries.
“There are no extraordinary gains in the Myanmar pipeline,” Total said.
“They were divided between transportation and gas production. It was a classic scheme and it was supported by the Myanmar authorities at the time,” the company said adding that it continued under successive administrations to this day.
Total has come under pressure from pro-democracy activists to stop funding to the junta since the military coup in February. The coup was rejected by most of the residents and resulted in deadly violence by the security forces.
Previously, Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne said that his party was suspending exploration in Myanmar. But it will continue to exploit the gas in Yadana as it is used to generate electricity for millions of people in Yangon and western Thailand.
He also said Total would donate the equivalent of a tax to be paid to the Myanmar government to organizations working on human rights in the country.
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