And while that was a rare emotional side of today's house meeting - of course there was of course, the usual legislative business with the government tabling several pieces of draft legislation.
One of them is the Lotteries Control (Amendment) Regulations, 2022.
Last month, 7News first learned that the government was planning to legislate a 12.5% lottery tax on boledo, lottery, and jackpot. It's part of new revenue measures for this new fiscal year. It first came to our attention when a letter from within the boledo franchise emerged that said they were considering a lawsuit to oblige the government to cancel SI 51of 2022.
According to the Prime Minister, SI 51 reverses what the former Barrow Administration did in September 2011 with SI 88 of 2011. In that previous SI, government lotteries were exempted from taxes.
Here's how Prime Minister Briceno made the point in the House that the concessionaire of the privatized lotteries received a massive tax break to the tune of 10s of millions of dollars that could - by his projections - have had a major impact on government revenues:
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister/Minister of Finance
"The Lotteries Control Act explicitly states that a Lotteries Tax is to be paid by every person to whom a license is granted to promote, hold or conduct a lottery. The lottery tax shall be, in addition to the Income Tax or Business Tax, payable by a licensee under the Income and Business Tax Act. It is payable at a rate prescribed by the Minister responsible for Lotteries under the Lotteries Control Regulations. The Lotteries Control Act, as the primary legislation, does not anywhere provide for the exemption of any lottery from the lotteries tax. Recall, Madam Speaker, that on the 17th of September 2011, the Dean Barrow Administration signed Statutory Instrument 88 of 2011. In this SI government, lotteries were the only of all lotteries completely exempt from taxes. All other lotteries were subject to the lotteries tax and remain so subject to date. It is curious, to put it mildly, that such purported exemption from lottery tax was introduced at a time when the Boledo and other government lotteries were being privatized so that only one party, the concessionaire, would benefit from such exemption. In this regard, the Ministry of Finance has been assessing the Lotteries Tax exemption for Government Lotteries and has determined that it needs to be taxed as any other Lottery game. Based on a combination of figures provided and further investigations, it is estimated that a lottery tax on government lotteries charged at the rate of 12.5% on gross monthly income, the same rate charged on other lotteries, would yield almost $5 million yearly. It is unfortunate that this lottery tax was not being collected before under the past UDP administration. If it had been, over the period of the consecutive exclusive licenses procured by the concessionaire, it could likely have yielded over $60 million in much-needed tax revenues for the government, 60 million dollars - apart from the profit that they make, you know. And they're making a killing. They got an extra 60 million dollars based on what they reported to the government."
SI 51 of 2022 also increased the license fee or government lottery from 2 million dollars to 2.5 million dollars.
During his remarks, which are protected by parliamentary privilege from defamation lawsuits, the Prime Minister pointed fingers at a well-known person connected to the former UDP Government.
