‘You are playing with fire’ - Golding suggests retro levy bill leaves loophole for legal claims, Gov’t dismisses concerns

The parliamentary Opposition’s protest that a bill giving retroactive effect to the environment protection levy from June 2007 to the present does not go far enough to protect the Consolidated Fund and public officials who imposed the tax from legal action was brushed aside on Tuesday.

Opposition Leader Mark Golding said the tax collected over the period was done without legal authority and urged the Government to introduce an amendment to the Environment Levy Act to validate and indemnify public officials who collected the revenues.

“I am wondering if we are adequately protecting the Consolidated Fund and the revenue and the economy of Jamaica by passing this law with retroactive effect but not specifically validating the collections that have been made over the period,” he said during a debate on the bill as parliamentarians returned from a two-month summer break.

Noting that he was not aware of the specific amount of taxes collected over the near two decades, Golding said it would amount to billions of dollars.

“I am very concerned that we are not protecting Jamaica by passing the bill in this form,” he insisted.

However, Minister of Finance and the Public Service Fayval Williams, who piloted the bill, did not accept the proposed amendment.

Justice Minister Delroy Chuck said the legislation was not a validation and indemnity bill and, as such, Williams should reject the amendment.

St James West Central Member of Parliament Marlene Malahoo Forte said while Golding’s concern was valid, Clause One of the bill made it clear that the law shall be deemed to have come into operation on June 1, 2007. In that regard, she said the collections made would be in line with the law.

But Golding stressed that making something retroactive does not eliminate an accrued right of a person who has paid money on a basis for which there is no lawful authority.

“You are playing with fire by adopting this approach, and I am not going to support it because I believe Jamaica requires the protection of a validation and indemnification provision and it should be in this bill because there is no other bill to put it in,” he added.

Williams said the bill would replace the expired provisional collection of tax orders to provide legal certainty for the EPL and safeguard collected revenue.

The bill seeks to give retroactive effect to the imposition of the EPL that was levied initially on imported goods and thereafter on manufactured goods by way of the provisional collection of tax act between 2007 and the present.

The Opposition’s proposed amendment was not accepted by the Government at committee stage, and they called for a divide. On the count, the nays were 29 and the ayes 25, which meant that the suggested change was defeated by the Government’s majority in Parliament.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com