Friday, March 29

Biden Proposes Excess Profit Taxes From Oil Companies


The president of the United States, Joe Biden, advanced this Monday the possibility that oil companies may have to pay a special tax on their windfall profits if they do not increase domestic production to lower gasoline prices.

The president of Iberdrola charges against the tax on energy companies after raising the benefit by 29%: “We will go to court”

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“Because they don’t want to do it, they have the opportunity to do it, lower prices for consumers at the gas station, but if they don’t they will have to pay a higher tax on their excess profits and face other restrictions,” Biden said in a statement. speech from the White House.

The president also said that he is already working with legislators in Congress to assess these options.

Biden framed his proposal in a context of record profits for the country’s major oil companies as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has turned the international energy market upside down.

The president, who has already been highly critical of the decision of the main companies not to increase their oil refining capacity, defended that the profits of these companies are not due to any innovation, but to the tragic situation of the war.

“I am a capitalist, I have no problem with companies having a fair profit for their investment and innovation, but that is not even remotely what is happening,” he assured.

$100 billion

Biden cited the profit figures of the 6 main US oil companies, which in the last 6 months have made a profit of 100,000 million dollars.

According to that source, the oil companies, instead of increasing their domestic production capacity to lower fuel prices at gas stations, are taking advantage of the profits to buy back shares and thus pay higher dividends to their shareholders.

Windfall taxes are an idea proposed by some economists, such as Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, to tackle inequality exacerbated by events like the pandemic or the Ukraine war.

In Colombia, Gustavo Petro’s tax reform includes a de facto tax on windfall profits from oil and coal companies, which are the country’s main exports.



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