Imbert slams ‘extremely dangerous’ clauses in Finance Bill

Former finance minister Colm Imbert. - File photo

FORMER finance minister Colm Imbert is raising concern with several clauses of the Finance Bill which the House of Representatives will debate on December 5.

At the Opposition’s weekly media briefing at the Opposition Leader’s office on Charles Street, Port of Spain, on December 3, Imbert noted that government gave parliamentarians less than three days to review the Finance Bill 2025 and prepare for the debate.

“When I looked at the legislation, it's 44-pages-long. It's very, very unusual to give parliamentarians just a couple days’ notice for a complex piece of legislation.”

Despite the short notice, he highlighted several concerns, describing some of the bill’s contents as “extremely dangerous.”

He said clause five allows the Central Bank governor to be given authority to create official economic statistics. Imbert said this was not recommended as the governor is a political appointee. He added that giving that person such a role and responsibility contradicts international convention.

“Now, the politically-appointed governor of the Central Bank will be given authority to make up his own economic data, and this will now become official data of the country,” Imbert claimed.

He also expressed concern over clause 15, which he said, alters the composition of commissioners leading the Board of Inland Revenue and expands it to include political appointees.

Currently, this board is comprised of five public officers who rose through the ranks before being promoted to become commissioners.

The new legislation proposes changing the composition to six public officers and adding two political appointees. He described this as an attack on democracy and privacy.

“Private political appointees will now sit on the Board of Inland Revenue. They will have access to your private and personal tax information. They will have the power to influence assessments, refunds, returns and enforcement,” he claimed.

“I can't believe they would even want to do this. Why on earth would they want to put political appointees on the board of Inland Revenue? What for?” He said this offends global forum requirements for tax transparency.

He predicted many of the other changes proposed in the legislation will harm the ordinary man’s pocket.

Pointing to one such measure, Imbert said the Bill plans to raise penalties for violations regarding raffles by up to 4,000 per cent.

“If you have a raffle, and you don't call out the results of the raffle inside the premises in which the ruffle is being held, at the time the raffle is being held, you would currently face a fine of $750. They are increasing that to $30 000. Who are they targeting with that?”

He also highlighted proposed changes to vehicle ownership and driver’s permit renewal fines.

“Not registering the transfer of your vehicle after seven days of change of possession, (the fine increases) from $200 to $500.

“And the fine for operating a vehicle for a purpose that it is not registered for, (increases) from $8,000 to $12,000. This is targeted at the small man and those little white vans, the unregistered taxis that you see around.

“And then there is a general doubling of fines for various infractions, such as failing, to renew your driver's permit.”

With more than 70 clauses in the bill dealing with the landlord surcharge tax, Imbert said the proposed legislation creates significant bureaucratic difficulties for people trying to earn an additional income.

“I've not seen this level of bureaucracy in legislation before. It doesn't make any sense.” He estimated more than 100,000 people will be affected.

Imbert claimed there was nothing in the legislation to stimulate the economy and create jobs.