By Clint Chan Tack Friday, February 5 2010

FINANCE MINISTER Karen Nunez-Tesheira yesterday rejected claims from Public Services Association (PSA) president Watson Duke that Government has not been consulting with the union about the establishment of the new TT Revenue Authority (TTRA).

“I beg to differ with that. I think that the facts always speak for themselves,” Nunez-Tesheira told reporters at the post-Cabinet news conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s while PSA members staged a midday protest in Port-of-Spain.

“I am not sure that the members of either Customs or Inland Revenue are against the Revenue Authority. In fact, my records show that since 2002, a committee was appointed to look at the implementation of a revenue authority. I have a Cabinet note to that effect. The idea of a revenue authority is certainly not new,” she declared. Referring to a file in her possession, Nunez-Tesheira said since she became Finance Minister, consultations on the TTRA started as far back as September 10, 2008 with a briefing of 344 Inland Revenue and 305 Customs employees. The minister listed all of the other ways the workers have been briefed on the TTRA and disclosed that former PSA president Jennifer Baptiste-Primus and her former deputy Stephen Thomas were intimately involved in many of those consultations. “They have copies of documents and presentations. They did not get it surreptitiously. They came to the meetings and we gave it to them,” Nunez-Tesheira said.

As part of Government’s ongoing commitment to the workers, Nunez-Tesheira said her ministry has arranged for the TTRA to give a special presentation about the authority to Duke and other PSA representatives at the Eric Williams Financial Complex on Tuesday. She also revealed she made special arrangements for Duke to get a copy of the draft of the TTRA Bill 2010 even while it was being reviewed by the Chief Parliamentary Counsel so both he and the PSA would get a better understanding of what was involved.

“So I don’t think there is an issue with the Revenue Authority. I think the issue is with the modality of the establishment of the authority. That is something that the union has a point of view on but I don’t think it is in regard to the authority.”

Asked by Newsday whether the debate on the TTRA Bill or plans to establish the authority would be deferred so that any modality issues could be resolved, Nunez-Tesheira replied, “Those modalities have been sorted out. They are not in question.” The bill was laid in the House of Representatives last week but will not be debated today when the House sits at 1.30 pm.