Govt moves to improve tax collection

Published: Monday October 27, 2008

Government is moving to set up a Revenue Authority to improve efficiency in the collection of income tax.

The announcement was made by Trade Minister Dr Lenny Saith during a PNM meeting to explain details of the 2009 budget. The meeting was one of 41 held in various constituencies on Thursday night.

Saith, who spoke in the San Fernando West constituency, said too many people had been engaged in corruption by trying to avoid tax payments.

He said a lot of the corruption in T&T started at the Licensing Office where people were able to obtain fake drivers’ permits.

He said, “The failure of the system is part of deficiencies in public administration. Part of the problem of society is the way some people are willing to pay money to get ahead. Some people believe that the only way to make money is to take advantage of people. That is why we have to improve the way we do business.”

Saith said Government planned to deal with inefficiencies in both revenue collection and expenditure.

“Our system of collection, in particular our income tax collection system, needs to be reviewed,” Saith said.

Saying that everyone would be cross referenced, Saith said the new authority would ensure that taxpayers’ dollars were well spent.

He said much of the corruption in society was caused by people who wanted to “beat the system” by paying money to “jump the line.”

He said two women recently visited his office to complain that they were evicted from a house by the Housing Development Corporation (HDC).

He said investigations revealed that one of the women had paid an official to get a house.

Meanwhile, a member of the audience, Satanan Maharaj, called on Saith to deal with white collar crime.

He called on Government to deal with the lawyers who were not VAT-registered and were not declaring their true income and were constructing huge buildings in San Fernando.


Source: Trinidad Guardian Newspapers
http://www.guardian.co.tt/business2.html