Rose­marie Sant

It is un­like­ly that the time­line set by Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert for the For­eign Ac­counts Tax Com­pli­ance Act (Fat­ca) to be dealt with by both hous­es of Par­lia­ment would be met. This as the Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee agrees that the pub­lic should be giv­en an op­por­tu­ni­ty to have their say on the leg­is­la­tion.

Gov­ern­ment had set Feb­ru­ary 3rd, that's Fri­day as the day for a vote on the leg­is­la­tion once the re­port from the JSC was de­liv­ered.

But the Guardian has been re­li­ably in­formed that at Wednes­day's meet­ing of the Com­mit­tee which com­pris­es Gov­ern­ment, Op­po­si­tion and In­de­pen­dent mem­bers of Par­lia­ment it was agreed that a pub­lic no­tice will be placed in the me­dia invit­ing pub­lic com­ment on the leg­is­la­tion. The pub­lic we are told will be giv­en ten days to sub­mit com­ments, con­cerns and rec­om­men­da­tions.

Asked if this will af­fect the re­port to go be­fore Par­lia­ment the Guardian was told that it will, but sources say they are op­ti­mistic that the dead­line for pas­sage of leg­is­la­tion by the end of this month will be met.

Well placed sources said at Wednes­day's meet­ing a pro­pos­al was tabled to make fail­ure to dis­close un­der the For­eign Ac­counts Tax Com­pli­ance Act (Fat­ca) an in­dictable of­fence. Un­der the cur­rent leg­is­la­tion fail­ure to dis­close is a sum­ma­ry of­fence which car­ries a one year jail term and a $30,000 dol­lar fine. The pro­pos­al is to in­crease that to three years im­pris­on­ment with a fine of $100,000 dol­lars.

The rec­om­men­da­tion on the ta­ble of fail­ure to dis­close as an in­dictable of­fence is for im­pris­on­ment for five years and a fine of quar­ter mil­lion dol­lars.

The Guardian was told that con­cerns were raised from some mem­bers about the pro­pos­al on the grounds that the sys­tem is too slow.

At the five meet­ings of the com­mit­tee so far, amend­ments were pro­posed and changes dis­cussed will be made with an amend­ed bill is to be pre­sent­ed to the com­mit­tee. Guide­lines for the Cen­tral Bank are al­so to be pre­sent­ed to the Com­mit­tee at its next meet­ing. No date has as yet been fixed for an­oth­er meet­ing.

The op­po­si­tion which had lob­bied for the JSC has said once the leg­is­la­tion re­turns to Par­lia­ment af­ter the work of the JSC it will sup­port it.