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Region’s tax administrators meet in Belize for discussions on weathering the economic storm

GeneralRegion’s tax administrators meet in Belize for discussions on weathering the economic storm
Forty-one delegates from Belize and the rest of the Caribbean are meeting at the Radisson Fort George Hotel in Belize City over the next four days to discuss the region’s tax administration strategies, in the 20th General Assembly and Technical Conference of the Caribbean Organization of Tax Administrators (COTA).
 
Coordination and harmonization of the region’s tax structures and initiatives are at the core of the region’s economic strategy, the main speaker, Belize’s Financial Secretary, Joe Waight, indicated.
 
Waight said that the entire region faces serious fiscal challenges on account of the current economic storm and ill economic winds, which have become pronounced due to unprecedented rises in food and fuel prices.
 
“Many governments have tried to hold down prices by reducing or removing altogether duties and taxes on petroleum products and on essential food items,” said Waight. “Some governments have also introduced subsidies… However, these actions have come at a significant cost to the budget both on the revenue and on the expenditure sides, resulting in a deterioration of the fiscal accounts.”
 
Governments, he said, have turned to revenue collectors to find more efficient and effective ways of “bringing home the bacon,” so to speak, thereby increasing demand on tax administrators, even while their departments have to somehow struggle with the same level of resources to get the job done.
 
(Belize’s Commissioner of Income Tax, Eric Eusey, gave a short anecdote in his vote of thanks, about a man who squeezed juice from a dry orange. He turned out to be a tax administrator.)
 
Waight said that coordination and harmonization of tax structures are critical in achieving economic integration, and it will take a harmonized incentive structure to increase economic activity, in order to foster growth across the region.
 
Mrs. Marilyn Ordonez, Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax (Belize), said in her welcome remarks that the conference’s theme, “Building Efficient Tax Administrations Towards Promoting National and Regional Development,” is appropriate as the region’s tax administrators seek to discover creative means of providing efficiency in tax collection.
 
She previewed that the topics to be covered during the conference include efficient integration of tax processes, legislative framework, the role of revenue court, and success stories and lessons.
 
“We hope that this conference will contribute to improving service provision and compliance,” said Ordonez.
 
The conclusions emerging from this week’s conference will create a platform for the region’s tax systems and tax administration, said COTA president, James Charles.
 
“Over the last year or so, the tax administration for CARICOM Secretariat has been merged into the wider program for the Single Economy. This merging provides for a close linkage and the creation of synergies,” said CARICOM program manager, Evelyn Wayne.
 
She asserted that today’s conference is “a start of a dialogue which will no doubt inform and allow for the redesign in some instances or the recalibration of nationally important reform programs,” as well as the fiscal and taxation coordination/harmonization program.
 
During the course of today, two conference papers are being presented: The Impact of the Economic Partnership Agreement on Taxation Systems in CARICOM, and The Impact of Trade Liberalization on a Modern Tax System.
 
COTA is an arm of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and countries represented at this week’s conference include Anguilla, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Grenada, Guyana, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Grenada, and Guyana.
 
Joining them are representatives of the Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Center (CARTAC), the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) and the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD).
 
Among the Belizean officials attending this morning’s formal opening were Minister of Foreign Affairs and Attorney General, Wilfred “Sedi” Elrington; Magistrate of the Revenue Court, Edd Usher; as well as staff of the Income Tax and Sales Tax Departments.
 
This morning’s opening ceremony began with a parade of flags by the Scouts, and later on attendees were treated to entertainment by the Larubeya Boys and jazzy beats of the trio – Chris Bradshaw, Mark Philips and Jeffrey Walcott.
 
Belize’s Commissioner of Income Tax, Eric Eusey, said that the time has come for COTA to have a budgeted administration, as it has until now only been surviving on goodwill contributions from member states in the region.
 
Mr. James Charles is concluding his term as COTA president. On Thursday, July 24, at the conclusion of the COTA conference, delegates are slated to elect a new executive, to be headed by a new president.
 
Belize’s Geraldine Davis-Young, director of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and a former tax administrator in Belize, presided over COTA from 1992 to 1994.
 
According to CARICOM, COTA was established in 1971 at a meeting of the Heads of Regional Tax Administration convened in Saint Lucia when its Constitution was ratified. The following year, the Constitution was approved by the Standing Committee of Ministers of Finance in Trinidad & Tobago.
 

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