Debate continued in the upper house on Friday on revenue authority repeal bill, with a former finance minister issuing a challenge to the current holder of the seat.
00:00Opposition Senator Vishnu Dan Paul was the first to contribute to the upper house's debate on the repeal of the Trinidad and Tobago Revenue Authority Bill.
00:09For me personally, this whole TTR exercise, and I'm sure I can speak for a lot of my former colleagues in the Ministry of Finance, this TTR exercise has been an exercise in absolute frustration.
00:24It has been a case of yes, TTR, no TTR, yes, TTR, no TTR. It has been a case of he said, she said, over and over as administrations change.
00:42He referred to the 2002 Dean Committee Report on Revenue Collection in TNT, listing the 13 deficiencies, starting with human resource management processes, inadequate management capability, accounting and training, inadequate staff development and training, lack of control over accountability for budgetary allocations.
01:04Inadequate employee compensation packages, high incidence of corruption and corrupt practices, inefficient systems of internal investigation and enforcement, inadequate information exchange and coordination between the administration and various taxes levied, poor customer relations, anti-business rules and regulation, lack of appropriate information technology systems, poor physical infrastructure accommodation,
01:31And this is 2002, long before they moved into their new accommodation, and 13 deficiencies in the legislative framework.
01:39And Dan Paul, a career public servant in the finance ministry since the 90s, who eventually became minister, recounted then actions of the trade union movement.
01:49He took all the members of staff out of the Board of Land Revenue under the premise that it was an OSHA issue.
02:04Similar, they did a similar, they did something similar with the Treasury.
02:09Mr. Mr. President, the workers of the Board of Land Revenue and the Treasury did not get back into the buildings for six months.
02:21And the impact that had on the revenue collection and the impact that had on the staff psyche, the BIR and, I dare say, the Treasury, they have not recovered since.
02:32And that's when he issued this challenge to the man currently occupying the seat to close the VAT gap by $10 billion.
02:41If he is able to close that gap without the revenue authority, Mr. President, I will personally seek your leave to come back here and apologize profusely to the Minister of Finance.
02:56Apologize profusely to the Honorable Minister of Finance in the year 2027.
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