Scottish Catholic Observer

SCIAF has called on the UK Government to press its European partners to introduce new corporate tax laws to help developing countries.

In a letter to Danny Alexander, the Treasury secretary, SCIAF highlighted that companies currently extracting oil, gas and other resources ‘do not have to declare what taxes they are paying overseas and many are able to force desperately poor nations into agreeing bad deals.’

The Scottish charity also noted that in Zambia, ‘a country in which two-thirds of the population lives in poverty and life expectancy is just 47 years, 70 per cent of its exports come from copper mining but this generates just 10 per cent of its national income.’

“SCIAF believes that corporations should pay their fair share to the people whose natural resources they profit from, not just in Zambia but wherever UK companies are operating overseas,” the charity’s letter to Mr Alexander (above) said. “Copper makes up over 70 per cent of exports from Zambia, yet only 10 per cent of taxes. A shift in international financial reporting legislation could make a huge difference in ensuring that revenue from natural resources goes back into development.”
SCIAF informed Mr Alexander that, in recent months, thousands of the charity’s supporters across Scotland have signed campaign postcards and emails, calling on the UK Government to push for Country by Country Reporting legislation from the EU.

“This campaign, in association with the global Publish What You Pay coalition, calls on the EU to legislate for European-based oil, mining and gas companies to report on what they are paying for access to countries’ natural resources,” the letter continued.

SCIAF also urged the UK Government to push for the legislation of an EU Parliament-endorsed report, which called on the European Commission ‘to establish legally binding requirements for extractive companies to publish their revenue payments for each project and country they invest in.’

“We urge you to push for this legislation to be put in place,” the SCIAF letter said. “With a billion people going hungry around the world, accountability and transparency from our oil, mining and gas companies could ensure that people and the planet can benefit from the responsible and just management of natural resources.”