Venezuela has presented a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell Group a bill for 281 billion bolivars (US$130 million) in back-taxes spanning three years, company officials said on Friday.
The claim, filed with Shell by Venezuela's tax agency, Seniat, on Thursday, covers the period between 2001 and last year. Seniat has given the oil giant 15 days to pay or face hefty fines.
"We have a team working very hard on this ... analyzing the details of this claim. Our books are completely open and we continue to be open to the scrutiny of Venezuelan tax authorities, and we will continue to cooperate," Shell spokesman Luis Prado said.
The claim is the latest move by President Hugo Chavez's leftist government to collect what officials say is more than US$3 billion in back-taxes owed the Venezuela by foreign oil companies operating in the country.
On Thursday, Seniat officials seized tax-related documents from Chevron Corp's administrative office in Venezuela, saying the company had repeatedly failed to comply with requests for the information.
Chavez' administration has accused oil companies running Venezuela's 32 operating agreements of violating oil contracts for years and failing to pay taxes.
The tax issue has further strained relations with foreign oil firms already upset by Venezuelan pressure to accept changes to long-standing oil contracts under a revised hydrocarbons law.
Venezuela is the world's No. 5 oil exporter.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
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