China pushes business-as-usual with Myanmar s junta aseantoday.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from aseantoday.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Total pulls Le Monde ads over report on Myanmar military ties
Issued on:
07/05/2021 - 13:56 Total has come under pressure from pro-democracy activists to stop financing the junta in Myanmar Martin BUREAU AFP/File 2 min
Paris (AFP)
French energy giant Total pulled adverts from Le Monde after it reported that the company was paying gas revenues to Myanmar s military through a tax haven, the newspaper said Thursday.
Total has come under pressure from pro-democracy activists to stop financing the junta since a military coup in February which has been followed by a brutal crackdown on dissent.
The company was due to run several adverts in the French newspaper over the coming weeks, but these were cancelled after it ran an article this week titled Myanmar: How Total finances the generals through offshore accounts .
Calls Grow to Cut Myanmar Junta’s External Financial Lifelines
Calls Grow to Cut Myanmar Junta’s External Financial Lifelines
Myanmar soldiers are seen during the Armed Forces Day commemoration in Naypyitaw, the capital of the country, on March 27.
1.3k
By The Irrawaddy 5 May 2021
Tougher action is urgently needed to cut off foreign currency flows to the Myanmar military regime, suggested local and foreign financial experts, who argued that severing its financial lifeline would hasten the collapse of military rule.
“The largest inflows of foreign currency to the military are from the oil and gas and mining sectors. We need to totally shut off the flow of foreign currency that is keeping the junta alive,” a local economist who asked not to be named told The Irrawaddy.
Getty Images
Myanmar s military has received hundreds of millions of dollars from gas sales through a financial scheme linked to a pipeline exploited by French energy giant Total, a French newspaper reported.
The scheme reduced the amount of royalties received by the state since transporting gas is taxed at a lower rate.
Total said the creation of separate companies to exploit the pipeline and transport the gas was not unusual, adding that similar arrangements exist in the North Sea and other countries.
Myanmar s military has received hundreds of millions of dollars from gas sales through a financial scheme linked to a pipeline exploited by French energy giant Total, a French newspaper reported on Tuesday.