AG begs Opposition to back tax bill

ATTORNEY General (AG) Faris Al-Rawi backed Finance Minister Colm Imbert’s plea to the Opposition to support a bill being debated in the House of Representatives for TT to trade tax details with other nations and, in doing so, cut crime and lift TT’s energy earnings.

The bill needs a three-fifths special majority in the House, said Al-Rawi.

He said if the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2018 fails, TT will be blacklisted in the country groupings, the Global Forum and Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), and the local banking system would shut down.

Like a year-long delay to support the FATCA bill, the AG said for six months the Opposition had said nothing against the tax bill in a joint select committee (JSC), but last Friday had suddenly objected. He said nine out of the ten clauses in the bill were either very innocuous or a rehash from the FATCA Bill.

Al-Rawi said if the bill returns to a JSC, it will be tied up with two related bills and languish.

“Our financial system would collapse. All the adverse consequences would follow.”

He said Global Forum won't let TT sign up to a multilateral tax disclosure treaty until the bill is passed.

Minister in the AG’s office Fitzgerald Hinds said last Friday, Caroni Central MP Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie and Chaguanas East MP Fazal Karim had been “scratching around like chickens” to find reasons not to back the bill. He said Opposition MPs may have "personal reasons" for not supporting the bill.

Asked if anyone might have cocoa in the sun, Al-Rawi replied, “That is one of the possibilities.”

He said the bill has reciprocity whereby foreign nations could send the TT authorities the tax details of TT nationals abroad, although not relevant to 99.9 per cent of wage-earners.

The AG said the Opposition had shown “extreme difficulty and discomfort.”

Optimistically, Al-Rawi said the Opposition had bucked to public pressure to support bills on child marriage, FATCA, terrorism and gangs.

He tied the tax bill to other pending legislation regarding civil asset forfeiture and the explain-your-wealth principle. He said if drug shipments can’t be unearthed or if witnesses are afraid to talk, this bill lets the authorities find the proceeds of crime, which the owner can lose if he cannot explain his wealth.

Asked about any witch-hunts, the AG asked rhetorically if TT’s law courts are political witch hunters. He said tax details would be received by the Board of Inland Revenue, not politicians, while Imbert said the police will have judicial oversight.

He said the bill would also help TT get proper revenues from the gas and oil sector, such as by getting disclosures of a practice known as transfer pricing.

The AG said the explain-your-wealth and civil asset forfeiture legislation was scheduled to be discussed yesterday at a Cabinet committee. "The legislation is perfected, all consultation is over and we are anxious to take it to Parliament with immediacy.” Of campaign finance reform legislation, he vowed, "We’ll come to Parliament very soon.”