00:00Former Education Minister Dr. Tim Gopi Singh was appointed as an Opposition Senator in
00:05place of one who was absent from the Senate during its debate and the committee stage
00:10of the Miscellaneous Provisions Global Forum Bill 2024.
00:16What would have initiated the thought of the Minister of Finance to put himself as the
00:23competent authority rather than leaving the competent authority as the Board of Inland
00:29Revenue? We can't see an explanation except now we have to say that he wants to usurp
00:36the powers of the Board of Inland Revenue and this is extremely dangerous for any citizen
00:42of Trinidad and Tobago when you have a politician being able to go into the taxes of citizens
00:48of Trinidad and Tobago.
00:50Finance Minister Colm Imbert's initial response was met with strong objections from the Opposition
00:56benches. Senate President Nigel De Freitas eventually issued an instruction to the Marshal
01:02of the Parliament.
01:03Senator Gopi Singh, Senator Gopi Singh, Senator Gopi Singh, I have not acknowledged you to
01:10speak. Silence. Senator Gopi Singh, okay. Senator Gopi Singh, you left before, leave
01:16again. Senator Gopi Singh, please exit this chamber now. Senator Gopi Singh, I have asked
01:24you to leave. Marshal, please remove the Senator.
01:31Soon after, the Finance Minister continued.
01:34The government did not remove the Board of Inland Revenue from the Tax Information Exchange
01:43Agreements United States of America Act 2017 and replace the Board of Inland Revenue with
01:50the Minister of Finance. That never happened.
01:54The 2024 Global Forum Bill states that the competent authority is the Minister of Finance
02:00or his authorized representatives.
02:03I have been at pains to point out that Section 4 of the Income Tax Act expressly prohibits
02:10me from getting access to personal and private tax information. And if I try, I'll go to
02:15jail. So that is just nonsense. So that I am doing what I've been asked to do by the
02:20Global Forum and the EU. If we don't do this, we run the risk of failing the peer review
02:26and continuing to be on the blacklist forever.
02:29Minister Inbert said he will appoint an authorized representative.
02:32I'm not going to pick up somebody off the street and say, right, you are the competent
02:36authority. It must be somebody who is an employee and an officer of the Board of Inland Revenue
02:43because only a person of that nature would have done the oath of secrecy and would be
02:50under penalty of law not to disclose tax information.
02:54The Global Forum Bill was passed via the votes of the government and independent senators.
03:01Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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