10-Saturday, May30, 1981-The Michigan Doily
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Windfall profit
tax collections
on upswing
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Collections
from the "windfall profits" tax on
crude oil are picking up and should
bring in close to $25 billion this year,
Treasury Department officials said
yesterday.
Officials said that collections of the
tax, enacted by Congress last year,
were below predictions for November,
December, and January because of un-
certainty about Internal Revenue Ser-
vice regulations governing payments.
THE TREASURY Department had
predicted last year that the tax would
bring in $25 billion in fiscal 1981, but for
the first five months of the year collec-
tions were $6 billion.
February collections, however, were
more than $2 billion and it is estimated
that they will average $2.7 billion for
March through September, the last
month in the fiscal year, according to
Cynthia Wallace, of Treasury's Office
of Tax Analysis.
"It looks like we are getting exactly
what we should be getting," Wallace
said. The decision by the Organization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries to
freeze prices could have an impact on
tax collections, but that impact is not
expected to be significant for 1981, she
said.
THE WINDFALL profits tax, which
took effect in March 1980, is not actually
applied to oil company profits but to
each dollar-price increase for oil above
1979 levels. It is expected to raise $227
billion in the next decade.
The Treasury Department prediction
came as other government officials
said investigations were continuing into
allegations of widespread cheating on
royalty payments for oil and gas leases.
The U.S. Geological Survey
estimated earlier this year that the
government may be losing as much as
$400 million a year in royalty payments
because of fraud and theft.
IN AN EFFORT to combat the
problem, the FBI is conducting an in-
vestigation in several .Western states,
the Interior Department's own auditors
are examining how the department's
bookkeeping methods can be improved,
and the USGS is working to upgrade its
computer operation, officials said.
Interior Department spokesman Ed
Essertier said investigators are
focusing on Wyoming, Utah, Montana,
and Colorado.
The most publicized probe so far in-
volves a federal grand jury in-
vestigation in Cheyenne, Wyo., into
alleged multimillion-dollar oil thefts
from the Wind River Indian Reser-
vation.
Investigators have said the Arapahoe
and Shoshone tribes may have lost $16
million in royalty payments in the past
two years through various schemes.
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Summertime Photo by DAVID GAL
Climbing this slide may seem like climbing Mt. Everest to these kids, but
give them a chance, and they'll soon have a shot at the top.
IMICH--IGAN
REPERTORY'ol
POWER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
Suspects arrested in
sex extortion attempt
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Mis
JUN
By Geor
Directed
alliance
alliance6 Member of the
E3, 4566
Ben lsa Wedding
°ge Bernard Shaw
By James Martin JUNE 10, 11, 12, 13
By Carson McCullers
Directed By Jon Hallquist
Loose Ends
JUNE 17, 18, 19, 20
By" Michael Weller
Directed By Terryl Wright
Hallquist
OREGON, Ohio' (UPI) - A police
spokesman said yesterday authorities
would soon issue a photograph of a
woman they believe was part of a plot
to extort $20,000 from a suburban
Toledo man by filming a sexual liaison
with him.
Two suspected accomplices were
arrested Tuesday by police and are
being held on $10,000 bond in Lucas
County Jail. They are to be bound over
to the grand jury next week.
THE TWO MEN, Virgil Phillips, 39,
of Kalamazoo, Mich., and Michael
Babbit, 25, of Plainwell, Mich., were
arrested at a motel in Oregon, but the
woman, who the victim said wore a
mask during the encounter, was still at
large.
The victim said the woman had been
sitting alone at a bar in the hotel, and he
had several drinks before he went to
her seventh-floor room at the hotel. The
victim said the woman insisted on
wearing a mask during the encounter to
fulfill a sexual fantasy.
Police did not release many details of
the investigation, but Cleveland police
Lt. Ralph Howard, who was contacted
by authorities after the arrests
Tuesday, said he was told a photograph
of the woman would be made from the
film that was confiscated.
HOWARD ADDED, "I don't know for
sure what type of mask she was
wearing, whether it was a Lone Ranger
type or not."
The victim said he was later contac-
ted by two men who sent him
photographs of the liaison taken
through a see-through mirror. The men
told him they would show the pictures
to his family and friends unless he paid
them $20,000.
Howard said the two men and the
woman registered at two rooms, bet-
ween May 15 and 19, cut a hole in the
door, and put a mirror on' one side,
Later, he said, they apparently
removed the mirror and covered it with
the picture.
Police said they found the names and
addresses of other men in the Oregon
motel room where the men were
arrested. They believe some of those
listed may have been victims of the
same scheme.
A spokesman for the Oregon police
said at least one other man had been
"lined up" for an extortion attempt, but
had not been contacted.
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THREE DOLLAR REVUE
A late evening vaudeville following Rep
performances June 12, 13 and 17-20.
LIGHT UP YOUR SUMMER!
TICKET OFFICE OPEN
PTP Ticket Office, Ml League M-F, Noon-4:30p.m. 764-0450
SEASON SUBSCRIPTIONS STILL AVAILABLE
All performances at 8:00 p.m. in Power Center
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