· .Transparency in the oil,gas and mining sectors is a growing global concern
· extractive sectors generate $3.5 trillion in annual gross revenues,or around 5% of global GDP
· Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI),a standard for reporting and managing revenues from natural resources,is beginning to usher sanity into the sector
· .It requires extractive companies,including public sector undertakings,to publish what they pay governments fees,taxes,royalty,profit shares,etc.Governments also publish what they receive in revenues from companies
· EITI is a global,voluntary coalition of governments,companies and civil society
· An independent audit,in which civil society is a participant,examines both sets of revenue disclosures and looks for discrepancies
· In 2009,Azerbaijan became the first country to become EITI-compliant.Since then,35 countriesthough not Indiaare following the standard
India is reluctant to sign up
· It insists the idea of EITI is driven by the West and that India doesnt stand to gain as its New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) is quite robust
· It says EITI serves only the interests of Western oil giants who are finding it difficult to operate in countries with poor governance structures
· As a result Indian companies are beginning to be equated with the Chinese,who have acquired a despicable record in bribery and corruption in foreign shores
· EITI process is not a fool-proof mechanism but ,its better than having nothing at all
· India says An online reporting system is expected to be in place by March 2012
Improvements in EITI
· There is increasing international pressure on the EITI to go beyond mere revenue flows.Today,the process only tells citizens what revenue has been paid by companies,and doesnt examine whether contracts are fair or whether revenues from minerals and oil & gas lead to the well-being of the citizens.
Article copied from : http://iasblogz.blogspot.in/2012/02/extractive-industries-transparency.html
0 comments:
Post a Comment