Public Service Minister gives update on the transition at Tax Services Department

The Ministry of Public Service is working to resolve human resource issues at the Belize Tax Services Department (BTSD) as it continues the transition into a Semi-Autonomous Revenue Authority (SARA). The transition will see some 226 public officers given the option of either transferring into the wider public service or be a part of the new statutory body, SARA. Minister of Public Service, Henry Charles Usher says that the major focus right now is to ensure that there is space for those who want to transition and to ensure that those who remain have a fair and smooth shift. 

Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Governance: “That would be the extreme case. We’re hoping we don’t get to that extreme case where everybody decides to transition into the wider public service. Because certainly then there would be a lot of human resource management that would have to come into play, not only to staff the authority, but also to look to where we’re going to put 200 plus employees in the wider public service with a particular skill set, because a lot of them have been trained in tax issues. They have the training. The officers that work at the Belize Tax Service Department have a particular skill set when it comes to auditing, tax auditing, tax compliance, et cetera. It’s not for everyone.  You know Benjamin, I don’t know if you have gone through the tax laws in our country, but these things are not necessarily something easy to go through and something easy to read and we’re always hearing businesses, individuals say, man we wish it could have been easier, more user-friendly the way we need to file our taxes and so on. So it’s a particular skill set and we’re hoping that it can work out so that they remain in the revenue authority and that we can make sure that whoever decides not to remain there, that we can find space for them in a wider public service.”

Usher noted that he has similar concerns as the Public Service Union with respect to the process being conducted properly to achieve the desired outcome. Love News understands that the full transition is expected to be completed by early next year.