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FINANCE MINISTER Audley Shaw is to chair a House committee on tax measures which has been tasked with examining a Green Paper on taxation that has been tabled in the House of Representatives.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding urged the committee to take its work seriously and not allow interest groups to determine its final report.
"In pursuing the work of the committee, and I don't presume to tell the committee how to do its work ... I imagine the committee would want to receive submissions," Golding said.
"I want to urge the committee ... to consider what is in the broad national interest and not necessarily what may be favoured by particular interest groups, no matter how powerful they may be," the prime minister said.
Shaw in May tabled a Green Paper in the House of Representatives which proposes, among other things, a reduction in the rate of the general consumption tax (GCT).
The Green Paper also proposes that the five per cent advance GCT now charged on the importation of goods be abolished, and replaced with an advance five per cent on the cost, insurance, freight fee paid by commercial importers, except for bauxite and petroleum.
At the same time, the Green Paper proposes that the personal income-tax threshold, which now stands at $441,168 per annum, be increased starting January 2012 through to 2014.
The Green Paper suggests the threshold be increased incrementally to $507,312, $600,288 and then to $624,000 by January 2014, and is likely to result in approximately 101,500 people having to pay no income tax.
Favourable rating
Last week, regional think tank, the Caribbean Policy Research Institute, gave a favourable rating to the broad tax-reform proposals but says the road map, as laid out, is unlikely to make the system more efficient.
Dr Peter Phillips, the opposition spokesman on finance, suggested that Parliament use its sessional taxation committee to examine issues of taxation in the society.
"I wonder, in light of the efforts being made and the discussions to ensure greater levels of not only transparency and accountability but also fiscal responsibility, whether a whole re-evaluation and review of the approach to taxation and Parliament's role in taxation might not be appropriate at this time," Phillips said.
Golding said he hoped the ad hoc committee being set up would touch on issues raised by Phillips.
He also said it was unfortunate that the committee is being set up so close to when Parliament would take the normal summer recess.
The members of the committee are Shaw, Dr Ken Baugh, Edmund Bartlett, Dr Christopher Tufton, Robert Montague, Anthony Hylton, Dr Omar Davies, Phillips and Fitz Jackson.