It has privatized just about everything that could be sold, and now government has a plan to privatize its revenue collection.
Through UDP Party Whip Michael Finnegan, 7NEWS has obtained a document which lays out a plan to make commercial banks collect business and sales tax with a view to eventually adding all customs charges to that list. The idea, credited to past Minister of Finance Hon. Ralph Fonseca is that for a fee those paying taxes would no longer go to the sales or business tax offices but into the banks or do it using the banks’ online services. What’s in it for government? Well greater efficiency is likely, but with the complex maze of classifications, especially for business tax, confusion is sure to abound.
It’s a bureaucratic thicket that it seems some banks - despite the fee - would be just as happy to stay out of. 7NEWS is reliably informed that two of the commercial banks have balked at the proposals, while another the Bank of Nova Scotia has agreed to a pilot project. And while the banks are free to choose, it’s not so easy for the hundreds of government employees who work as revenue collectors. What would happen to them if someone else is doing their job? Well, we couldn’t find out because we couldn’t reach Financial Secretary Hugh McSweaney a man so permanently out of reach that we must now assume he carries an Intelco phone.