Finance Minister Colm Imbert Monday night said he was calling the “bluff” of opposition legislators as Parliament gave the green light for a waiver until December 31 this year for penalties and interest on sums owed under the Registration of Clubs Act, National Insurance Act, Income Tax Act, Value Added Tax Act, Stamp Duty Act, and the Property Tax Act.
Imbert had during his contribution to the debate accused the opposition legislators of “bluff, old talk and a torrent of political hypocrisy,” daring them to vote against the Finance Bill 2024, indicating that in this current amnesty, the government expects to collect TT$1.5 billion (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cent) in outstanding taxes.
The opposition spokesman on finance, Davendranath Tancoo, had complained that the government’s amnesty was seemingly rewarding wrongdoers and that those companies owing the government value-added tax (VAT) should have made the payments after having collected the taxes from the sales to customers.
Tancoo called on the government to state how many state agencies owed monies to the National Insurance Board (NIB), while Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar strenuously objected to the bill giving Imbert the power to renew the amnesty.
Imbert told legislators that the decision to have a tax amnesty until the end of the year is related to the economic fallout caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and that many businesses had to prioritize what they spent on.
He said small businesses, in particular, may have avoided paying taxes in a bid to stay open, having experienced significant cash flow challenges, he explained.
“This is influenced by the recovery from COVID-19, during which companies not only fell behind in terms of payment of their taxes, but also in their payment of National Insurance Scheme commitments.
“The National Insurance Board is quite aggressive in terms of trying to recover National Insurance payments and quite aggressive in terms of trying to recover penalties and interest even from state entities,’ said Imbert, who noted that the NIB had received TT$124 million from the last amnesty.
“I also want to make it clear that the amnesty does not in any way, create a situation where the tax liability is waivered, so the taxes are still owed but what is being waived is the penalties and interest on the overdue taxes,” said Imbert.
“As in all previous tax amnesties, if the individual or the corporation fails to take advantage of the amnesty period, fails to make the tax payments that are due, owed and payable, the associated interest and penalties are restored upon the expiry of the amnesty period.”
Imbert told Parliament that under the previous amnesties, the government had recouped significant amounts of money, with the 2011 amnesty yielding TT$1.6 billion, $776 million in 2016, TT#2.3 billion in 2019, TT$1.1 billion in 2021 and in 2013, a total of TT$1.5 billion.
Source-CMC
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