Corporate tax dodging is 'corruption': World Bank chief

The head of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, criticised companies dodging taxes on Thursday, calling it corrupt behavior that ultimately hurts the poor. 

PHOTO: EPA

OCT 2, 20157:27 AM

[WASHINGTON] The head of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, criticised companies dodging taxes on Thursday, calling it corrupt behavior that ultimately hurts the poor.

The World Bank president said that developing countries needed to build more equitable taxation that could bring in revenues that "could easily eclipse official development assistance" they receive.

"Some companies use elaborate strategies to not pay taxes in countries in which they work, a form of corruption that hurts the poor," Mr Kim said in a speech ahead of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings next week in Lima, Peru.

According to a recent United Nations report, tax evasion is costing an estimated US$100 billion in lost public revenues in poor countries.

The world's central bankers and finance ministers, at the Lima meetings next week, are expected to approve a broad action plan aimed at battling multinationals' strategies to reduce their tax burdens and shelter profits in tax havens.

In his speech, Mr Kim argued that economic growth alone was not enough to help pull people out of poverty.

"A focus on GDP growth is simplistic," he said.

"We reject 'trickle-down' approaches that assume any undifferentiated growth permeates and fortifies the soil and everything starts to bloom even for the poor.

"We need to find an economic growth model that's inclusive, that lifts up the poorest citizens rather than maintains those at the top."

Anti-poverty nongovernmental organization Oxfam welcomed Mr Kim's speech, and in particular his rejection of trickle-down economics.

"Jim Kim rightly points out that the very wealthiest are capturing an excessive share of the proceeds from growth and too often this enriches only those at the top," said Nicolas Mombrial, head of Oxfam's office in Washington.

He called on Mr Kim to support at the upcoming World Bank-IMF meetings "a process that has all countries on an equal footing so an international corporate tax system is created that works in the interest of the majority - not the vested interests of the few."

The 188-nation World Bank, the leading development lender, has set targets of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting the shared prosperity for the bottom 40 per cent of the population in developing countries.

AFP

    
 

Dollar little changed ahead of US jobs report

The dollar treaded water against other major currencies on Thursday as foreign exchange traders awaited the next day's US jobs report for September. 

PHOTO: AFP

OCT 2, 20157:03 AM

[NEW YORK] The dollar treaded water against other major currencies on Thursday as foreign exchange traders awaited the next day's US jobs report for September.

Analysts expect the jobs report Friday will show the US economy added 205,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.1 per cent, a seven-year low.

A report that meets or exceeds these expectations and includes evidence of solid wage growth would boost the dollar in the anticipation that the US Federal Reserve will soon lift interest rates, analysts said.

Meeting these conditions would mean "the light for raising interest rates will flash green," said Kathy Lien, managing director at BK Asset Management.

"However if payrolls fall short or average hourly earnings growth slows, the Fed's decision becomes tougher and the dollar will suffer as a result," she said.

AFP

    
 

TPP trade talks extended

The twelve Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Ministers hold a press conference to discuss progress in the negotiations in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii on July 31, 2015. 

PHOTO: REUTERS

OCT 2, 20157:17 AM

[ATLANTA] Trade officials from 12 Pacific rim countries have extended to Friday negotiations aimed at creating the world's largest free trade zone.

With some of the final differences still not ironed out, a spokesman for the US Trade Representative said a planned press conference on Thursday evening was cancelled and "negotiations will continue tomorrow."

Talks have bogged down on several issues, including how the US opens its market to foreign auto parts - particularly from Japanese car makers - and how much Canada is willing to open its market to dairy products from Australia and New Zealand like cheese.

Also still unresolved is the US push to establish lengthier patent protections for biologic drugs, made using living organisms, which is being resisted by a number of the 12 countries involved in the talks - Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

Worries were that the negotiators would again not be able to bridge their differences, two months after a meeting of the ministers in Hawaii failed to strike a deal.

Since initiating the talks in 2008, the United States has been hoping to lock in rules on free trade and intellectual property protection that global trade heavyweight China would eventually have to heed.

China, however, has already begun trying to set up its own Asia trade agreement, which analysts worry could take concrete shape if TPP talks fail.

AFP

   
 

Glencore tells investors debt cutting on track

A man walks from the reception area at the Glencore Plc headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2015. 

PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

OCT 1, 20157:16 PM

[LONDON] Glencore has told investors it is on track to cut debt and shown new data about its secretive trading unit in a fresh attempt to dispel the market worries over its finances which knocked 30 per cent off its share price on Monday.

The stock recovered a further 3 per cent on Thursday after credit analysts from Barclays said a meeting they organised with members of Glencore's management on Wednesday, including the co-head of corporate finance Carlos Perezagua and the head of strategy Paul Smith, managed to address many concerns of investors and bondholders. "The market is telling us that Glencore is in financial distress. Our credit colleagues believe this is premature and do not have those concerns - they do not think Glencore is at risk of imminent default," Barclays analysts said in a note adding that it believed the company can retain its investment grade credit rating.

Glencore market jitters were triggered by worries that if the collapse in commodities prices over the past year persists for too long, it will stretch the company's ability to earn enough to service its debt.

Glencore has already pledged to cut its net debt to US$20 billion from US$30 billion, by selling assets, reducing capital expenditure, suspending dividend payments and raising US$2.5 billion of new equity capital with the share sale completed earlier this month.

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Glencore told investors and bondholders on Wednesday that it was on track to sell a stake in its agricultural business by yearly next year, according to Barclays.

It also hopes to complete a so-called streaming deal - when it would sell by-products such as silver or gold from copper production at a fixed price before it is mined - by the end of this year.

A source close to Glencore confirmed the meeting with bondholders mainly focused on the balance sheet and debt reduction plan.

The Barclays analysts' reported Glencore also told the meeting it had US$50 billion worth of credit lines from banks in the form of letters of credit to support its trading operations but has so far utilised only 30 per cent of the lines.

REUTERS

    

Uber campaigns against tough rules proposed in London

A user scans for an available vehicle using the Uber Technologies Inc.'s app on an Apple Inc. iPhone 5 smartphone in this arranged photograph in London, U.K., on Friday, May 30, 2014. 

PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

OCT 1, 201510:56 PM

[LONDON] Ride-sharing giant Uber launched a petition that had more than 116,000 signatures by Thursday against proposed regulation in London that would force drivers to pass English language and map reading tests.

Drivers of traditional London taxis or "black cabs" have protested against services like Uber for years and hold frequent rallies in the streets of the British capital, accusing them of unfair competition.

"We understand that black cab drivers are feeling the pressure from services like Uber," the company's British branch said on its website.

"But the answer is to level the playing field by reducing today's burdensome black cab regulations - not to introduce rules that will be bad for riders, drivers and London," the statement said.

Transport for London (TfL), which runs the city's transport system, launched a public consultation on Wednesday on a series of proposals that would affect all minicab services, including Uber, but not taxis.

The consultation ends on December 23 and the measures would be adopted by TfL after that, depending on public support, a TFL spokesman said.

One of the proposed requirements would be for private hire companies to operate a fixed landline telephone and accept bookings up to seven days in advance.

It would also tighten insurance rules for drivers and introduce an interval of at least five minutes between making a booking and the start of the journey to give drivers time to plan their route.

"No final decisions have been made and we're keen to hear a range of views from the trade and Londoners too," said Garrett Emmerson, TfL's chief operating officer for surface transport.

The centre-right Daily Telegraph newspaper criticised the proposed regulation saying: "Uber is here to stay - London has to embrace innovation".

"It's about protecting a taxi cartel that has become cosy with its regulators," wrote the author of the article, Madhumita Murgia.

The number of minicabs in London has risen by 26 per cent in the past two years to 62,800, according to the latest official data.

AFP

    

OUE to snap up extra 33.33 per cent stake in One Raffles Place owner for S$465m

By

Melissa Tanmelissat@sph.com.sg@MelissaTanBT

OCT 1, 201511:00 PM

Property group OUE will be buying the entire 33.33 per cent stake that Kuwait Investment Office is selling in OUB Centre Limited (OUBC) after other shareholders chose not to purchase the shares they were entitled to.

It will pay around S$465.42 million for the shares, which will bring its stake in OUBC up to 83.33 per cent, the mainboard-listed group said in a Singapore Exchange filing on Thursday.

OUBC is the registered owner of the One Raffles Place mixed-use development in the central business district, in which it has an 81.54 per cent beneficial interest. The remaining beneficial interest is owned by UOB.

An 83.33 per cent stake in OUBC would work out to an effective 67.95 per cent stake in One Raffles Place.