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MEPs want to talk to George Osborne and Google about a 'bad deal'

Jan 27, 2016, 17:55 IST

Chancellor George Osborne.REUTERS/Neil Hall

European MEPs want to question chancellor George Osborne about the tax deal he negotiated with Google, the BBC reports.

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Eva Joly, a French MEP and vice chair of the European tax committee, told BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme that MEPs are going to call on Osborne to provide more information around the tax arrangements the Treasury made with the Californian internet giant.

"We will ask him [Osborne] to come and explain and I hope he will," Joly said on Radio 4.

"This bad deal is also very bad news for everybody," adding that it indicates the UK is preparing "to become a kind of tax haven to attract multinationals."

Last week, Google agreed to pay HM Revenues and Customs (HMRC) £130 million in back tax for the past 10 years of activity in the UK.

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However, critics argue this pales in comparison to Google's £4 billion annual revenues in the UK.

Labour is leading the criticism of the tax deal. On Monday, shadow chancellor John McDonnell was granted an urgent question in Parliament to ask about the deal. He claimed that Google's "effective tax rate is now around 3%."

Other companies of Google's size pay HMRC 30% corporation tax.

Joly added that the European tax committee will also request that the head of Google - which could be interpreted as either Google CEO Sundar Pichai or Alphabet CEO Larry Page - appears before them.

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