Rowley hits Kamla over 'sham'

HOURS before their one-on-one due meeting on the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill 2018, the Prime Minister alleged the Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar's attendance would amount to a sham, alluding the time on Friday was too soon before that of the House of Representatives sitting at 1.30 pm. The Opposition has refused to sit on a House committee on the bill (for a disclosure of individuals' tax-details) that the Government claims is needed to prevent TT's blacklisting in a European grouping, the Global Forum.

Dr Rowley addressed a People's National Movement meeting at Port of Spain City Hall on Thursday night.

"She will meet me on Friday at 11.30 am and Parliament is at 1.30 pm. So you know the meeting is a sham," he said.

"They are running true to form: delay, object, obstruct and sabotage."

Rowley sought to link the Opposition to corruption, saying six projects had cost overruns of $1.5 billion under the former regime, and saying $22 billion in suspicious transactions such as money-laundering were unearthed last year by the Financial Intelligence Unit.

He scoffed at the Opposition's claims to be protecting individuals' right to privacy. "They are not protecting you at all. Ask yourself, just who are they protecting? I say to you this evening: the criminal element in TT." Rowley related the section 34 affair and the $1 million Beetham Wastewater Treatment Plant. Hitting the Opposition's rejection of the bill, he alleged, "They know exactly what they are doing, because they know the outcome will be chaos. It is the economy they want to collapse."