I have taken note of the points made in your editorial of October 30. Allow me to update your records.
The Insurance Bill and the Gaming and Gambling Bill are currently before the Parliament, having been laid by me a few months ago and preserved in the 2016/2017 session under the new standing orders.
Both bills are identical in form and content to the bills introduced by the previous administration, which bills lapsed in June 2015, when Parliament was dissolved. Both require a special majority to be passed. Since your newspaper has indicated an interest in these matters, you may find it useful to encourage the Opposition to support these two pieces of legislation when they are debated within the next few months.
Similarly, to improve revenue collection, it has long been recognised that the Board of Inland Revenue is in need of transformation and modernisation.
I am pleased to report that I am in receipt of recommendations to strengthen revenue collection in T&T from the Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC), which made a presentation on this matter to me last Friday. The consultants have identified a number of weaknesses and outdated systems and recommended a number of strategies, including a major legislative overhaul of the BIR. Again, this will require Opposition support.
I expect to be able to table the requisite legislation to reform revenue collection in Parliament in 2017, with the assistance of CARTAC.
Similarly, with the assistance of technical experts, after many years of successive administrations talking about it, we expect to be able to regulate transfer pricing in 2017.
Colm Imbert,
Minister of Finance