The Metropolis

Screwing the poor of Senegal - a DIY guide

Darren Atwater | Friday 16 April, 2010 18:51

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From Private Eye

Thanks to British government-sponsored tax avoidance, Britain’s development fund CDC, formerly the Commonwealth Development Corporation, is helping shaft the people of Senegal (annual income: £1,000 per capita) on exploitative mining contracts by siphoning profits to a tax haven.

It’s a neat trick…

The company extracts gold from the inland Sabodala region and ilmenite and zircon –minerals used to make paints and abrasives – on the Grand Cote north of capital Dakar. But while it extracts the country’s resources, it doesn’t record any profits in Senegal, where they would be taxed at 30 percent. Instead, these are diverted to the island of Mauritius in the Indian ocean which has a tax rate nearer, um, 0 percent with some neat financial engineering.

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