I am not connected with the family businesses, Barama is required to sell at a fair price on the local market

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56520673
Stabroek News

Monday, May 21st 2007

Dear Editor, I wish to respond to the recent reports (May 11 and 18) in your newspaper that my critique of the Barama Company's violation of Guy-ana's laws and regulations and non-compliance with the terms of its FDI agreement are part of `a family vendetta'. I am not connected with the businesses of my relations, either as a shareholder or as a salaried worker, nor am I party to enterprise strategies. For the record, Mr Lalaram's assertion that Precision will have to pay the comparable international price for locust violates both the letter and spirit of the company's 1991 FDI agreement which states in part: "10. Product Pricing. The parties hereto [that is, the Government of Guyana and the owners of Barama] shall discuss and agree on the pricing policy relating to the Company's products which would govern the disposal of any portion(s) of the Company's products on the local Guyanese market, taking into consideration the price(s) and quality of the local Guyanese product(s)." The Government and People of Guyana should take note that Samling Global, Barama's parent company, raised US$ 269 million in March 2007, mostly on its claims to 2.1 million hectares (or more than 5 million acres) of Guyana's forests. Samling controls more forest lands in Guyana than it does in Malaysia. Yet between 30 June 2003 and 30 September 2006, Samling paid US $87.6 millions in royalties only to Malaysia. In comparison, in that same time period, Barama Company paid only a total of US $2.5 millions as royalties and rent to the Government of Guyana and to its landlording forest concessionaires combined. In 2004-2005 only, the tax concessions granted by the Guyana Revenue Authority (as `revenue loss') to Barama Company amounted to US $1.9 million. In other words, Guyana subsidises the Barama Company Limited. Mr Lalaram's announcement of a direct punitive action against companies to which I am not connected provides further proof of the blatant violation of his company's FDI agreement while it continues to despoil the forests of Guyana for limited national gain. If this is not a new vicious variant of colonialism, I do not know what is. Yours faithfully, Janette Bulkan