Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
THE GOVERNMENT says it will be taking delinquent employers before the courts for non-payment of statutory deductions.
Employers are responsible for paying over to the government those contributions due to the state from their direct employees. But to date, billions of dollars in tax and other statutory deductions have been withheld from the government's coffers by delinquent businesses.
The Government has been placing advertisements to encourage employers to hand over the deductions and to warn of the legal implications of failure to do so.
Two of the most recent advertisements highlighted that January 13, 2006 was the deadline for filing annual NIS returns while March 15, 2006 would be the cut off date for Income Tax Returns.
NON-PAYMENT IS A PROBLEM
Just last week, the National Housing Trust (NHT) announced that it is yet to recover an estimated $9 billion in unpaid contributions from delinquent employers island-wide. Last week, as an incentive for delinquent employers, Prime Minister PJ Patterson on the request of the NHT's board of directors approved a six-month amnesty of penalties on outstanding NHT contributions.
At least one ministry has started taking legal action to recover the sums owed.
"As of this week people will be served with summonses," said Jerry McDaniel, public relations manager in the Ministry of Labour, which has responsibility for the National Insurance Scheme (NIS).
COMPULSORY INVESTMENT
Mr. McDaniel revealed that legal officers have already set up court dates in every parish.
"I won't beat around the bush, compliance is a problem that we face in tax administration," stated Meris Haughton, director of public relations at the scheme, which is a part of the government's social safety net. But, because of the incorrect notion that NIS is a tax, there is a similar failure to pay.
"Apart from being illegal," Mr. McDaniel said, "it is also immoral to deny someone of their savings in old age."
Neither Ms Haughton nor Mr. McDaniel could immediately furnish The Gleaner with an estimated figure for what is owed to their relevant Ministries. However, Mr. McDaniel said the outstanding NIS contributions could be in the hundreds of
millions of dollars.
