Jun 23 - GSD Condemns “Lack Of Transparency” On Rebates
The GSD has said that there are “no depths to the lack of transparency and flip flopping” from the Government on the issue of tax rebates.
A statement from the Opposition continued: “In the March session of Parliament, the Leader of the Opposition asked “how many individuals or entities are currently entitled to tax rebates, and what is the overall value of rebates due ?” and the answer from the Chief Minister was that “It is not possible to answer his question accurately where the only parameter of time is ‘currently’”. This, of course, was a nonsensical answer. We were also told that if we reformulated the question by reference to a specific date, the information would be provided.
“Yesterday in parliament, the Leader of the Opposition reformulated the question by reference to the 31 March 2017 and the Chief Minister refused to provide the information. He simply said that he would deal with these matters during the Budget. When pressed as whether the information would be provided during the Budget, he refused to undertake that he would do so.
“It is unfortunate therefore that the Opposition cannot update people owed tax rebates how much the Government owes or when people are likely to be paid. All the Opposition can say is that in April of last year there were £30m owed to people in tax rebates and that since then only £9.6m have been paid.”
The Leader of the Opposition said” “I am not surprised by the answer because the Government constantly closes the shutters on democracy when it suits them but people will be disappointed. If the Chief Minister says the Gibraltar Government is doing very well financially, that should trickle down to people who are owed money by the Government. There is just no justification for the Government not to pay people their money."
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