The United Kingdom (UK) continues to stand as one of Guyana’s closest bilateral partners. High Commissioner Greg Quinn recently told Guyana Standard that the UK wants to see Guyana make the best of its oil industry and, while the industry is still nascent, Quinn said that Guyana must move quickly to put some much needed policy measures in place.
Quinn said this during a recent interview with Guyana Standard at the UK High Commission, Main Street.
The envoy indicated that the UK wishes for Guyana to realise an oil and gas sector that offers equal opportunities to all companies that may want to invest here.
He said, “We want to see a business environment treating everyone exactly the same, regardless of where they are from. So there needs to be rules and regulations. There must be standards on local content. It is important for these standards to be applied to everyone regardless of which country they come from and that everyone has a fair chance to do business that will benefit both sides. If they are spending money and taking risks then there needs to be a return on the risks but then there also needs to be benefits to the country.”
Quinn was adamant that all companies must be made to pay their fair share of taxes.
He said that the UK is very passionate about this and has therefore decided to pump some money into helping Guyana set up the needed framework to monitor the companies’ tax payment.
Quinn said that on that front, the UK is part funding an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme that is ongoing at the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
The programme, he said, is designed to put in place a regulatory and tax unit that is able to check that the oil companies, “and all big companies for that matter, are paying what they are meant to pay so that the country gets the benefit. The country needs to get what it is entitled to get.”
