Google executive grilled in UK House

London, Feb. 11: A top Google executive was left struggling for words when he could not remember his own salary at a grilling by British MPs on Thursday over the US tech giant’s controversial tax bill.

Matt Brittin, head of Google Europe, West Asia and Africa said he would provide the figure at a later date after Meg Hillier, head of the public accounts scrutiny committee, demanded it four times.

“You don’t know what you get paid?” the legislator said. “Out there, taxpayers, our constituents, are very angry. They live in a different world, clearly, to the world you live in if you can’t even tell us what you are paid,” said the Labour MP.

Britain’s tax agency announced in January that Google would pay a £ 130 million tax settlement for 10 years’ operations in Britain where it makes 11 per cent of its global sales.

Finance minister George Osborne hailed the agreement as a victory. But there was a barrage of criticism, including from within Prime Minister David Cameron’s own Conservative Party as the announcement coincided with a key tax filing deadline for many Britons.

Another panel of British MPs said the Cameron government has significant work to do to justify plans to allow authorities to spy on the public’s Internet use

It later emerged that Google had made profits of £ 106 million on revenues of £ 1.18 billion in Britain in the last 18 months alone and the Labour Opposition claimed the giant was paying only “three per cent tax”.

Meanwhile, a committee of legislators said the British government has significant work to do to justify its plans to allow the authorities to spy on the public’s Internet use.

The committee said that while it supported the bill in principle, it believed the proposed law needed significant amendments and made 86 recommendations for change.

“There is much to be commended in the draft bill, but the home office has a significant amount of further work to do before Parliament can be confident that the provisions have been fully thought through,” said Paul Murphy, the committee chairperson.