Samsung spent $13.6bn on taxes globally in 2017
Seoul, June 18 : South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics spent $13.6 billion (15 trillion won) to pay taxes around the globe in 2017 -- a 70 per cent increase from a year earlier, the company's business report showed on Monday.
The record-breaking amount posted last year nearly doubled from 7.8 trillion won posted in 2015, Yonhap news agency reported.
Samsung Electronics said the South Korean government accounted for 81 per cent of the amount posted last year, with other Asian countries accounting for 10 per cent.
The tech giant posted 239.6 trillion won in sales in 2017, up 18.6 per cent on-year. Its operating profit shot up 83.6 per cent over the cited period to 53.6 trillion won.
South Korea took up 13 per cent of the sales posted in 2017, followed by North and South America with 34 per cent.
Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States accounted for 19 per cent and China held 16 per cent.
Industry watchers said while Samsung Electronics had most of its sales overseas, it is still paying most of its taxes in South Korea as it is headquartered here.
The company spent 385.6 billion won for charity projects around the world in 2017, providing support to some five million beneficiaries, the report added.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
