National Assembly (AN) was expected to approve windfall profits tax on oil companies

Caracas Daily Journal (Jeremy Morgan): The National Assembly (AN) was expected to approve President Hugo Chávez' proposal to levy a windfall profits tax on oil companies.

AN Deputy Angel Rodríguez, head of the energy and mines committee at the legislature, said oil companies would have to pay 50 percent of the "extraordinary revenues" they received from oil prices above $70 a barrel.

• The tax cut would rise to 60 percent if oil prices broke through the $100 a barrel barrier, he added. Rodríguez said the full chamber was expected to vote through the tax during ordinary sessions on Wednesday.

Chávez has argued that oil companies should not be beneficiaries of high prices, and that the increased wealth belongs to the peoples and countries whose oil it is. He has said he doesn't want to see oil go above $100 a barrel, a price he considers fair. There've been some complaints in oil industry circles about the tax.