The state-owned Dutch railway company NS is continuing to cut its Dutch tax bill by routing the cost of new trains and their rental income through Ireland, the NRC reports on Wednesday.

This is despite finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem’s 2013 statement that the practice is ‘undesirable’ from society’s point of view and ‘should be ended’, the paper says.

In 2012, the Volkskrant reported that the NS had cut its Dutch tax bill by at least €250m since 1999 by routing the cost of new trains through Ireland.

The NS’s 2014 annual report makes brief mention of the Dublin-based leasing company NS Financial Services but does state the company paid €11m in corporation tax in Ireland last year. Irish corporation tax is a basic 12.5%, half the Dutch rate.

The last major purchase made by the Irish leasing company is 118 new Sprinter trains which will be delivered from 2018. That contract is worth €500m. The purchase of the Fyra high speed trains from AnsaladoBreda also went through Dublin.

The Netherlands itself has repeatedly been under fire for offering generous advance tax agreements to foreign companies, allowing them to reduce their tax bills at home.

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Dijsselbloem told parliament later on Wednesday that the Irish route will be closed off and the NS will stop buying trains through its Irish subsidiary.

The trains that are owned by the Irish unit will be ‘gradually’ shifted back to the Netherlands in terms of their taxable ownership. However, this is set to take at least 10 years, according to information provided by Dijsselbloem to parliament.

According to the Irish Times, NSFSC had accumulated profits of more than €785m by the end of 2013 and owned trains with a net value of €1.3bn. It reduced its Irish tax bill to €5.4m in 2013 with the aid of €5.8m in capital allowances.