Guests slam deferral of Tax Review Launch
The Minister of Finance and Treasury Synder Rini’s decision to postpone the official launch of the Tax Review at Mendana Hotel on Friday morning without prior notice has angered most of his guests who are members of the private sector.
Invited guests, mostly CEOs and senior managers of the country’s biggest companies arrived in the hotel only to be told of the postponement of the launch.
“It is totally disappointing for us to come to Mendana for the tax review launch just to be met by the postponement notice. This is unacceptable. We have wasted our valuable time to come and only to be told that the launch has been postponed,” one CEO of a major company said.
One expat said: I wonder what the Minister of Finance and Treasury was thinking when he made the decision to postpone a long-planned event at the last minute. This is not good!
The CEOs, general managers and many other guests were informed by the Chief Executive Officer of the Solomon Islands Chamber of Commerce and Industries Dennis Meone of the postponement.
Neither the permanent secretary nor his under secretaries from MOFT were in the hotel to explain the situation to the guests who packed the meeting gallery.
“This is bad. You can’t just invite people and cancel a meeting in the last minute without telling them in advance,” said one senior government official.
Another prominent businessman said it would have been better if the government had informed all businesses houses yesterday so that they don’t have to waste their time coming to the hotel.
Permanent Secretary of Finance and Treasury Harry Kumar told Solomon Star last night that event had to be postponed due to an urgent cabinet meeting.
“There were some urgent cabinet papers that the Minister Rini was unable to push through in cabinet yesterday (Thursday) so an urgent cabinet meeting had to be convened this (Friday) morning to push them through.
“Cabinet had to pass the papers as there are some urgent matters that need to be resolved. This is not to say the tax-review launch is not important but there are some matters that must be attended to urgently,” Mr Kumar said.
He said he understands business houses especially were disappointment about the last minute postponement and the government apologises for all the inconvenience caused.
Mr Kumar said next week the government will be able to confirm a new time for the tax-review launch.
Tax Review
According to the Ministry of Finance, Rini, has approved the Ministry to undertake a review of the current national tax system as part of the Government fiscal reforms.
The current tax structure, it says, has been largely unchanged for decades, imposes a very high tax burden when compared to other Pacific countries and is outdated, inefficient, complex, expensive to administer and anti competitive. A comprehensive tax review will examine problems with the current system and seek solutions to deliver a tax system that will promote economic growth. This will be a fair, simple and broad-based tax system, which ensures everyone who is liable to pay tax, pays the correct amount.
The Tax Review will be undertaken in stages:
- Stage 1: Review of Tax Administration and Consumption Taxes.
- Stage 2: Review of Income Tax.
- Stage 3: Other Taxes.
Recommendations on a way forward for Stage 1 of the Tax Review will be delivered to the Minister by the end of September 2017.
Public Consultation
Public consultation on the Stage 1 of the Tax Review will commence on Friday 25 August 2017, with the Formal Launch of the Tax Review, and will be followed by an open consultation session. Focused consultation sessions will also be organised with key interest groups throughout the consultation period, which will end on Friday, 15 September 2017.
