PE­TER CHRISTO­PHER

pe­ter.christo­pher@guardian.co.tt

The tax ex­emp­tion on mo­tor ve­hi­cles cur­rent­ly en­joyed by Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans and oth­er pub­lic of­fi­cers may soon be sub­ject to a cap of $350,000.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley an­nounced the de­ci­sion to pro­pose the tax ex­emp­tion cap as he wrapped up his con­tri­bu­tion to the 2020/2021 Bud­get de­bate in Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day.

“I will pro­pose to my col­leagues at the Cab­i­net be­cause I am not go­ing to uni­lat­er­al­ly make a de­ci­sion. Like I will pro­pose to my col­leagues at the Cab­i­net, the Cab­i­net take the po­si­tion of the av­er­age ex­emp­tion on mo­tor ve­hi­cles be capped at $350,000 be­cause, Madam Speak­er, that will give you a fine car,” Row­ley told the House.

The tax ex­emp­tion en­joyed by MPs and oth­er pub­lic of­fi­cials, in­clud­ing judges, was again brought in­to ques­tion fol­low­ing Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert’s an­nounce­ment in the Bud­get last week that nu­mer­ous con­ces­sions on im­port­ed mo­tor­cars would be re­moved as a means to re­duce the amount of for­eign ex­change ex­pend­ed on ve­hi­cle im­por­ta­tion.

This has prompt­ed the ar­gu­ment that while car prices in­creased for the com­mon man, pub­lic of­fi­cials such as MPs still were able to buy lux­u­ry ve­hi­cles at re­duced prices, with some com­men­ta­tors point­ing out that some of these ve­hi­cles bought on ex­emp­tion were not even be­ing used by Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans.

“In terms of ex­emp­tions from mo­tor ve­hi­cles, Madam Speak­er, I too am con­cerned. Be­cause if those ex­emp­tions are be­ing used for the pur­pose for which they are meant I have no prob­lem, but if they are be­ing used to fa­cil­i­tate oth­er peo­ple in the way that they have been, then they are re­quired to be looked at,” said Row­ley, as he made pass­ing ref­er­ence to a car pur­chased by an Op­po­si­tion MP which cost over $2 mil­lion dol­lars but was sub­ject to over $1 mil­lion in ex­emp­tions.

Im­bert al­so raised a query with re­gard to the pur­chase of that lux­u­ry car last year, as he closed the de­bate.

“Since his leader claims to be con­cerned for the poor and down­trod­den, how it go look? How our con­ces­sion go look? “ Im­bert said.

The vehicles of some Members of Parliament parked outside the Red House, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.

ANISTO ALVES

“Per­haps the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion can in­quire of the mem­ber for Point-a-Pierre, why he use this tax ex­emp­tion priv­i­leges to pur­chase in 2019 the most ex­pen­sive car of all mem­bers of par­lia­ment prob­a­bly in the his­to­ry of this Par­lia­ment Madam Speak­er,” Im­bert said in ref­er­ence to MP David Lee.

“A 4-litre Mer­cedes Benz AMG G63 val­ued at 2.3 mil­lion dol­lars and why that op­po­si­tion mem­ber ac­cess the ben­e­fit of 1.4 mil­lion dol­lars in tax and du­ty con­ces­sions four times more and ben­e­fits ac­cessed by most oth­er MPs for a car which hard­ly ever dri­ves to Par­lia­ment.”

Im­bert al­so ques­tioned why the ve­hi­cle was pur­chased through a New Zealand firm as op­posed to a lo­cal deal­er, as he not­ed de­c­la­ra­tion of in­come forms would have had to be signed had the car been pur­chased lo­cal­ly.

Im­bert al­so ques­tioned the pur­chas­es of Oropouche East MP Roodal Mooni­lal.

“An Op­po­si­tion MP on a salary of just 17 thou­sand dol­lars per month with no oth­er ob­vi­ous source of in­come has pur­chased a Jaguar and a Mer­cedes Benz with­in the last three years and has the temer­i­ty to throw shade at the rest of us,” Im­bert said, not­ing the Op­po­si­tion was guilty of “po­lit­i­cal hypocrisy” in the mat­ter.

“I ad­vise the leader of the Op­po­si­tion to look with­in her ranks rather than throw­ing shade on this side.”

The Prime Min­is­ter, how­ev­er, point­ed out that re­moval of the ex­emp­tion would have lit­tle im­pact on the Trea­sury.

“It’s not a car that the gov­ern­ment is giv­ing you and it’s not mon­ey that will come to the trea­sury if you don’t get it but some peo­ple be­lieve I would love to see MPs pun­ished. Be­cause if you don’t get the ex­emp­tion, you don’t buy the car. If you buy the car and you get the ex­emp­tion it doesn’t go to the trea­sury. You don’t buy the car the tax is not due,” he said.

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so ad­dressed the calls made for him, as well as oth­er Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans, to give up five per cent of their salaries, stat­ing that he did not need the ad­vice of the Op­po­si­tion con­cern­ing shar­ing his in­come.

“As I’ve been shar­ing with those I rep­re­sent and even those I don’t rep­re­sent be­cause, Madam Speak­er, with­out prompt­ing and with­out fan­fare, with­out pub­li­ca­tion, I spend be­tween 15 and 20 per cent of my in­come giv­ing to peo­ple who are not on the pay­roll,” he said.