Ecuador wants to freeze assets of French oil company over unpaid taxes

QUITO, March 3 (Xinhua) -- The Ecuadorian government has asked a local tribunal to freeze the assets of the French oil company Perenco in a bid to recover unpaid taxes of 338 million U.S. dollars, authorities said Tuesday.

Perenco failed to pay the tax Monday as expected and will face legal action, Mining and Oil Minister Derlis Palacios told a local TV channel station.

"Perenco has goods, fields and oil. The judge will decide which measures are allowed by the law to cover those values," Palacios said.

Palacios said Monday that he met with Perenco executives but "unfortunately we did not reach concrete agreements and the company did not give a proposal to pay its multimillion debt."

President Rafael Correa in February ordered legal action to start against Perenco and Spain's Respol because neither had paid taxes on their extraordinary profits from oil exports from Ecuador.

Repsol last week agreed to pay 447 million dollars in unpaid taxes over a five-year period.

Under a 2007 decree, foreign companies are required to pay Ecuador 99 percent of the unexpected income earned from record oil prices.