PM reveals Government's election-year agenda

Tobago internal self-governance and campaign finance reform are two of the major items set to dominate the government’s legislative agenda as it enters its final year in office.

Speaking at a post-cabinet media briefing on August 28 at Whitehall, the Prime Minister said Parliament had been on a recess that would come to an end on September 9, the last day of this parliamentary session.

He said Parliament would convene on that day to save certain items on the legislative agenda which would be raised again in the new parliamentary term, which starts on September 13.

Dr Rowley said one of the major pieces of work the government intends to take into the next session is the Miscellaneous Provisions (Global Forum) Bill 2024, which addresses tax transparency and the exchange of information for tax purposes across countries with the aim of ending bank secrecy and tax evasion.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) describes the Global Forum as “the leading multilateral body mandated to ensure that jurisdictions around the world adhere to and effectively implement both the standard of transparency and exchange of information on request and the standard of automatic exchange of financial account information.”

It says the Global Forum also runs an extensive capacity-building programme to support members in implementing the standards and help tax authorities make the best use of cross-border information-sharing channels.

Speaking in Parliament on January 19, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said the bill was essential to the economic growth and development of TT.

He said the government was resolute in passing the bill, as it must be implemented if TT was to be considered compliant.

“The Global Forum and EU have made it clear that even if we pass all of the required legislation, even if we make all of the amendments…that is not sufficient, because they also want to also see them implemented, which will require a lot of work on the part of the Inland Revenue Division in particular.

“Now have to make sure that the Inland Revenue does what it has to do in terms of exchange of information for tax purposes.”

From March 4-8, 2024, experts from the Global Forum Secretariat visited Trinidad and Tobago to discuss the progress and remaining challenges in implementatingthe standards on transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes.

Rowley said the other major issue the government intended to address was a report by the Elections and Boundaries Commission on the review and recommendations on establishing constituencies and  adjusting boundaries and polling divisions.

“That was in the Parliament and laid for quite some time. It has to be debated and we'll dispense with that very quickly in the new session.”

The report was laid in Parliament in April, but was never debated. Leader of Government Business Camille Robinson-Regis said the report could not be debated because there must be notice.

Rowley said campaign-finance reform would also be looked at, as it also affected the Representation of the People Act.

“We intend to make some modernisation of that, and that bill that was laid in Parliament for quite some time, and we will go forward with that.”

The Representation of the People Act (Amendment No Two) was drafted by former attorney general Faris Al-Rawi, and Rowley introduced it in Parliament in May 2020 before it was referred to a joint select committee (JSC) for examination.

The report of the JSC was presented in Parliament on September 9, 2022.

Rowley said the government also hoped to receive, in the coming days, an updated report from the Salaries Review Commission (SRC), as the last one had “significant anomalies” and “deficiencies.”

On March 6, the government rejected the 117th SRC report, which recommended salary increases for some of the country’s top public officials, including a proposed 30 per cent hike in the Prime Minister’s salary to $80,000, which would make the head of governmen, the public official with the highest monthly salary.

Rowley said, the report lacked “certain components of information,” including the points of view and consultation with the judiciary.

“In fact, it was the position of the judiciary that the commission’s work in some aspect might even have been illegal. And we have sent that back to the commission and with a deadline to report, and we expect that the commission will report in a matter of days.”

Reiterating comments made at the PNM’s special convention on August 18, Rowley said Tobago self-governance was another issue of legislative importance for the government.

“That has been in the Parliament for quite some time. We have saved it going forward and this will be the last opportunity to do that, so it will be (saved).

“It is my intention to have the work of the committee concluded very early in the next session.”

Rowley denied the government was focusing on those or any other issues to gain an advantage in the election, which is constitutionally due next year.

“Sometimes one gets the impression that when the government is elected, that the last year or two is not supposed to be working days or months or years. Because anything you do then, there's a cacophony of interested parties accusing you of doing it for election, as though what you had done before was for something else.

“Once we have working days right up to election day, we work. And with respect to the accusation that the work is being done for elections, I feel good about that, because the reason why anybody would say that something is being done for election is because they believe it is something good which could somehow influence the electorate to support the government.

"And if it is something good, then there's no time as good as the present.”

Meanwhile, opposition senator Jayanti Lutchmedial says the government’s legislative agenda, just like the decision to change the coat of arms, is a distraction.

Speaking with Newsday after Rowley’s media briefing, she suggested the public was less interested in those issues and more concerned about crime, which she described as a “top-tier” issue.

“I would have expected a press conference to talk a little bit more about how they intend to arrest this crime situation, because it really is out of control and people are quite fed up and getting quite, you know, aggravated with the government’s failure to really deal with it.

“So many people filing property-tax objections, but yet being forced to pay the tax whilst they wait a whole year for their objections to be resolved. Things like these are much more critical issues than anything that he has said he's bringing on the parliamentary agenda.”

She said cost of living and flooding were other issues which affected people almost daily and should take precedence.

She said any legislative measure being introduced by the government should address the public’s main concerns.

“The response that people have to these issues (is that) to ignore those things at the time like this and talk about anything else is really irresponsible of a government, and they're not really serving and treating the most dire needs that people have right now.”