BW Gas boss accuses Norwegian government

BW Gas boss, Jan Håkon Pettersen, accuses the Norwegian government of going back on its promises that the around NOK 20.0 billion in tax credits should not be claimed unless the money was taken out as dividend. He said that many Norwegian shipping companies moved to Cyprus, Belgium and Singapore in the middle of the 1990s. “The rest of us trusted the Norwegian authorities. We said to ourseleves: Norway is not Albania. But if the tax credits are coming up for collection, we were wrong in our assessment. It is a clear breach of promise”, said Pettersen. The leftwing partner in the coalition government, the Socialist Left Party (SV) is now insisting the tax credits will fall due.