And turning now to a matter of extreme public interest: Did the Prime Minister's sister Vanessa Briceno pay her taxes? In 2021 we reported that she had been listed with arrears of 11.1 million dollars in GST.
So, what happened, was she spared the humiliation of imprisonment and a shaved head because of her connections?
We asked the Director General of Sales Tax about it:
Jules Vasquez:
"Enforcement is uneven, that, you know, this sort of thing happened to him because he's, young, black entrepreneur from a depressed community that they don't have access to the things that wealthy businesspersons might have. And a lot of people are pointing to the case of the Prime minister's relative, Miss Vanessa Briceno, who had a large amount oytstanding as well. And as people are saying, she never gone to jail. So how do you respond to this criticism of uneven enforcement based on socio economic background or who you know?"
Michelle Longsworth, Director General - BTS
"I think that that is a bit unfair, and I believe that basically it's because people just assume things. What happened is, speak directly to the case of Miss Briceno. When Miss Briceno owed that amount we went through the same process we are going through with Mr Munnings. We brought her in. We said to her, this is what you owe. We went through the ability to pay process, and she made a commitment to pay off her taxes. She stuck to that payment plan, and she paid off her taxes that she owed."
