The ac­ti­va­tion date for the T&T Rev­enue Au­thor­i­ty is Au­gust 1 and fol­low­ing the procla­ma­tion of sec­tions of the TTRA Act yes­ter­day (May 1), In­land Rev­enue and Cus­toms em­ploy­ees are be­ing giv­en in­for­ma­tion this week on work tran­si­tions.

This was in­di­cat­ed in a no­ti­fi­ca­tion cir­cu­lat­ed from the of­fice of TTRA chair­man Nigel Ed­wards to em­ploy­ees of the In­land Rev­enue (IRD) and Cus­toms and Ex­cise Di­vi­sion (CED). Both di­vi­sions will be in­te­grat­ed in the TTRA.

Em­ploy­ees al­so con­firmed they ex­pect­ed to get let­ters from yes­ter­day.

The no­tice stat­ed that 2023 is mov­ing apace, “and the Trinidad and To­ba­go Rev­enue Au­thor­i­ty (TTRA) is keep­ing up as we en­ter the mid­dle of the sec­ond quar­ter.”

It was not­ed that the TTRA’s Strate­gic and Op­er­a­tional Plan was sub­mit­ted to the Fi­nance Min­is­ter last De­cem­ber and in Feb­ru­ary 2023, the plan re­ceived the req­ui­site ap­proval and was laid in Par­lia­ment.

On April 24, the Pres­i­dent is­sued the procla­ma­tion of cer­tain sec­tions of the Rev­enue Au­thor­i­ty Act (2021) to be­come law. Among the sec­tions pro­claimed by the Pres­i­dent are Sec­tions 14(3), 14 (4), 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 (3) (d).

The no­tice stat­ed, “These sec­tions re­late to the ap­point­ment of the Di­rec­tor Gen­er­al; the move­ment of pub­lic ser­vice work­ers to the TTRA; su­per­an­nu­a­tion ben­e­fits; the cre­ation of a pen­sion fund plan at the TTRA. This takes ef­fect on 1 May 2023.

“Now that this has hap­pened, the TTRA shifts gears again as it pre­pares for ac­ti­va­tion day on 1 Au­gust 2023 - 90 days af­ter these sec­tions were pro­claimed.”

Based on this time­line, the cir­cu­lar stat­ed that the next step is to alert em­ploy­ees as it re­lates to work tran­si­tions.

“Be­tween 1 May-3 May 2023, please ex­pect in your in­box or via hard copy, a cor­re­spon­dence re­lat­ed to this top­ic. We im­plore that you make the ef­fort to keep up to date, as these pack­ages will guide you in your de­ci­sion-mak­ing process mov­ing for­ward.

“We wish to main­tain a healthy and pro­duc­tive dis­course through rec­i­p­ro­cal care and re­spect. There­fore, we thank you in ad­vance for your co-op­er­a­tion. IRD and CED teams will con­tin­ue to re­ceive up­dates from me, as Chair, and the Board. We will be in touch with you again with fur­ther de­vel­op­ments.”

Some IRD/CED of­fi­cers yes­ter­day ex­pressed con­cern about what’s ahead. But Fi­nance Min­istry of­fi­cials, as­sur­ing full com­mu­ni­ca­tion, cit­ed the min­istry’s Fre­quent­ly Asked Ques­tions site on the TTRA.

This states:

* IRD and CED work­ers will have the op­tion to move to TTRA or re­main in the pub­lic ser­vice on no less favourable terms and con­di­tions. Work­ers who choose not to go to TTRA will be re­de­ployed in­to the Pub­lic Ser­vice.

* Con­tract work­ers will have the same op­tion to trans­fer to TTRA. Those who don’t will be re­de­ployed in­to the Pub­lic Ser­vice.

* VSEP won’t be of­fered as all em­ploy­ees will be re­de­ployed to the TTRA or through­out the pub­lic ser­vice.

* All ac­quired pen­sion rights of staff will be trans­ferred to TTRA. There­fore, when pen­sions are paid by TTRA, the in­di­vid­ual’s years of pen­sion­able ser­vice in the Pub­lic

Ser­vice will be tak­en in­to ac­count.

* Em­ploy­ees will be put in a po­si­tion com­men­su­rate with their skills, knowl­edge and ex­pe­ri­ence. All are in­vit­ed to com­plete the Em­ploy­ee Pro­file Forms which will as­sist in en­sur­ing that work­ers are placed in po­si­tions that best match their skill set.