The Malaysian Insider :: Breaking Views
The Malaysian Insider :: Breaking Views |
| Spain’s Ferrer pushes Davis Cup final into last match Posted: 18 Nov 2012 08:23 AM PST PRAGUE, Nov 18 — World number five David Ferrer today cruised to a 6-2 6-3 7-5 win over Tomas Berdych to put defending champions Spain level with the Czech Republic at 2-2 in the Davis Cup final.  David Ferrer keeps Spain's finals hope alive, beating Tomas Berdych. — Reuters pic "The important thing is that we have got back to 2-2 and the pressure is on them now," Ferrer told Spanish television. Spain are bidding for a fourth Davis Cup title in five years, while the Czechs want to become the first country in 22 years to win the men's and women's team titles in the same year. Stepanek has defeated Almagro twice, but the two Czech players have played in all the matches during the weekend and are coming off a bruising four-set doubles win over the Spanish duo of Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez yesterday. With one extra day of rest, Ferrer looked fresher and one step ahead of Berdych, giving the crowd of more than 13,000 at Prague's O2 Arena little to cheer. "He's played a lot of matches. But as for me, I played very focused, very aggressive and started really well and maybe (that) was the key," Ferrer said. Ferrer, Spain's leader in place of injured former world number one Rafa Nadal, looked at ease on the fast hard court. He opened the match with an ace, while another ace stopped Berdych's momentum in the fifth game, helping Ferrer breeze to the first set. The 30-year-old Spaniard, who is coming off a career-best year, looked in control after that as he made the tall Czech chase the ball. Berdych showed some fight in the third set, breaking the Spaniard to level at 4-4, but Ferrer quickly steadied himself to close out the match. — Reuters |
| Unwelcome headlines fuel Jersey anti-finance dissent Posted: 18 Nov 2012 07:49 AM PST  Farmer Perchard in his farmhouse: Thankful for the tax-haven model. — Reuters pics Jersey's capital St Helier, with its mix of French and English street names, seems an unlikely satellite to the financial hub of London, yet since the 1960s it has developed a formidable offshore banking and finance sector that now accounts for more than two-fifths of the island's economy. Its critics typically get short shrift.  Jersey deputy Geoff Southern: Public anger at tax avoidance by corporations and the excesses of the scandal-hit banking sector has emboldened a movement to clip the wings of finance in Jersey. "People are scared to speak out for fear of losing their jobs," said Jersey native John Christensen, former economic adviser to the island's government and now a director of Tax Justice Network and campaigner against tax havens. Richard Syvret, the founding director general of Jersey's financial regulator, is an unlikely fellow traveller with those who think the island has too many eggs in the finance basket. "I do feel very much that Jersey is obsessed with money and the finance industry," he said over lunch in one of St Helier's many squares. "I think a number of people would deny it, but ... the facts speak for themselves. We have devoted ourselves to it, and I think it's to our detriment." Jersey, a 116 sq km island off the coast of Normandy in France but a British Crown Dependency through a quirk of medieval history, sits outside the United Kingdom and the European Union. As a self-governing parliamentary democracy, it runs its own tax regime, which charges no capital gains or inheritance taxes and, for most businesses, no corporation tax, either. Finance firms pay just 10 per cent. Unwelcome headlines Jersey's government and financial regulators have fought hard over the years to dispel an image of shady offshore banking and criminal money held in secret accounts.  Economic Development Minister Maclean: Clean bill of health from the IMF and independent academics. But Southern, from his office on Royal Square, commanded by a gold statue of George II, isn't convinced. "It's clear that we've set up a system that facilitates tax evasion," he said. Last week the island found itself written into unwelcome headlines after Jersey account details for more than 8,000 clients of Europe's largest bank, HSBC, were leaked to Britain's Daily Telegraph. The newspaper said known criminals were among the account holders, while British tax authority HMRC is checking the list against its own records to root out tax dodgers. Ethics of tax avoidance The fact that the island's industry can thrive off money moved offshore at the expense of public budgets in places like Britain makes Southern, who was born in England, uncomfortable. "Whenever I hear that GVA (the main measure of economic output on the island) has gone up, I think, 'That's three hospitals not built in Britain, because that's tax revenue the UK Treasury misses out on'," he said. Others fear the island would struggle if it were thrust back on older sources of income — Jersey Royal potatoes and bucket-and-spade holidaymakers. "If Jersey had to rely on its traditional industries - agriculture, tourism ... it wouldn't be the vibrant place it is today," said Robert Perchard, who runs a 300-cow dairy farm and is a director of the island's largest potato grower. His 80-year-old mother Anne, who has lived on 22 hectares of farmland in the northwest of the island since 1957, thinks the island will find new ways to make ends meet. "The Jerseyman has always been resourceful — and entrepreneurial," she said. Margaret Thompson, a Scot who sells mansions to some of Jersey's wealthiest arrivals, has clung on to her Glaswegian accent after 33 years on the island, and wants to cling on to the status quo, too. "People are happy with the way things are here," she said. She believes families come to Jersey for a better lifestyle, not just the lower taxes. Her views, like those of the Perchards, could well be tested in the coming years. The European Union is exploring new tax structures that will remove the opportunity for companies to funnel profits through tax havens, while the opportunities for tax evasion by individuals are also narrowing. Jersey is party to a few dozen information-exchange deals that allow the relevant countries to get evidence on tax evasion once they strongly suspect wrongdoing. Fair tax campaigner Christensen believes Jersey will have to sign up to an automatic exchange of information that would lay bare the tax affairs of those banking in Jersey. "If they don't sign up, the US will come down on them like a ton of bricks," he said, "and then Europe will demand the same. "Jersey is going to have to rethink its strategy." — Reuters  A fish seller prepares a stall in the early morning at the fish market in St Helier. |
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