Imbert dismisses UNC 'toting' on tax refunds

FINANCE Minister Colm Imbert has dismissed claims from the Opposition UNC about the timing of the payment of over 30,00 tax refunds this week.

In a tweet on Sunday, Imbert reiterated what he said about these refunds in a statement issued by his ministry on Saturday.

"This took months to process. The UNC complained that payment of these tax refunds was 'raiding' of the Treasury and, also, that we shouldn't work on Saturdays. Why they toting so?"

On Saturday, Imbert announced the payment of over 30,00 tax refunds this week.

Imbert said based on representation and requests made by members of the public, he recently authorised the Board of Inland Revenue (BIR) to pay all individual income tax refunds of up to $20,000 or less.

Imbert said after a detailed process of review, assessment and verification, the BIR advised him that 33,466 tax refund cheques have been printed, are being enveloped and batched for delivery through TTPost.

“Over 30,000 taxpayers should thus expect to receive their individual income tax refund cheques in the mail within the next week.”

The timing of the announcement was questioned by the Opposition.

“Why couldn’t the ministry release this information on Monday, the next working day?” the party asked in a release.

It said while it welcomed “all quick and legitimate payments to citizens, “the timing of the announcement was questionable as it could be seen as a possible misuse of state resources for political purposes."

In a separate statement, National Transformation Alliance (NTA) political leader Gary Griffith expressed similar concerns to the UNC. Griffith claimed the distributions of these funds was "shameless politicking."