The giant Russian oil company Yukos is discussing the settlement of a multi-billion-dollar tax claim against it with the tax ministry, the Interfax news agency quoted a top minister as saying yesterday.
"There is cooperation on the possibility of settling the claim," Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said.
Yukos and the tax ministry are in litigation over the ministry's claim for more than 99 billion rubles (US$3.4 billion) in unpaid taxes, in addition to extra fines and interest.
Yukos, which has been under investigation for nearly a year, has warned it cannot pay the bill because of a freeze imposed on its assets and will be forced to declare bankruptcy if it is ordered to pay the claim immediately.
The firm and the ministry have filed a myriad of lawsuits and counter-lawsuits over the past several months and a court may issue a ruling this week on when Yukos will have to pay the claim.
Analysts have said that the company could strike a deal with the authorities to avoid bankruptcy after President Vladimir Putin's comments last week that the government did not wish to see the nation's largest oil producer go belly up.
Many observers are convinced that the government's aim is to wrest control of Yukos from its jailed founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his fellow shareholders, who are nearly all either in jail or exile.
The arrest of Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest man, and the troubles of his company are widely seen as Kremlin payback for his political ambitions and open defiance of Putin.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
RSS