Derek Achong

The path has been cleared for the Gov­ern­ment to fi­nal­ly com­plete the op­er­a­tional­i­sa­tion of the T&T Rev­enue Au­thor­i­ty (TTRA).

De­liv­er­ing a judg­ment a short while ago, the Unit­ed King­dom-based Privy Coun­cil dis­missed the fi­nal ap­peal in a law­suit chal­leng­ing the move brought by the Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA).

In the ap­peal, the PSA through its mem­ber Ter­isa Dho­ray con­tend­ed that a High Court Judge and the Court of Ap­peal got it wrong when it re­ject­ed their case over the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the move.

Like the lo­cal courts, the Privy Coun­cil ruled that the move is not un­con­sti­tu­tion­al al­beit for dif­fer­ent rea­sons.

"The trans­fer of rev­enue func­tions to the Au­thor­i­ty pur­suant to the Act does not breach any im­plied pro­vi­sion or as­sump­tion on which the Con­sti­tu­tion is based," the Law Lords said.

The out­come was warm­ly re­ceived by Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert.

"WE WON THE CASE! This re­quired tremen­dous ef­fort against the re­lent­less op­po­si­tion from the UNC and the PSA. Now we can mod­ernise rev­enue col­lec­tion.”