Caracas, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela‘s National Assembly on Tuesday approved a new 33.3 percent tax on oil extraction that will mainly affect joint ventures involved in extracting heavy crude from the country‘s oil-rich Orinoco River basin.

Those joint ventures between the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and its foreign partners, will have to pay an additional 16.7 percent royalty compared with their current levy of 16.6 percent.

The chamber, made up of 167 deputies, all from the ruling party, also agreed to boost income taxes for the Orinoco projects from 34 percent to 50 percent.