On Friday, Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre addressed public concerns regarding the Draft Tax Administration and Procedure bill.
Pierre, who is responsible for finance, said the former United Workers Party (UWP) administration initiated the draft bill in circulation.
“It only becomes important when it goes through the processes. It’s a piece of paper for circulation. That’s all it is,” the Prime Minister told a press briefing.
He explained that in December 2020, the former Minister of Finance instructed the Inland Revenue to prepare a bill to harmonise administrative collection and penal provisions of the various pieces of legislation.
He issued the following statement at the media briefing:
Thank you for joining me today as we address concerns circulating regarding the Draft Tax Administration and Procedure Act that has garnered attention. It is imperative that we always provide accurate information to the St Lucian public, to dispel any misconceptions.
First and foremost, I want to make it clear that the draft bill in circulation was initiated  during the term of the UWP administration as evidenced by Cabinet Conclusion No. 1511 of 2020.  The Cabinet Conclusion reads:
‘Cabinet considered a Memorandum dated 13th November, 2020, submitted by the Department of Finance and approved the request for creation of the Tax Administration and Procedures Act to harmonize the administrative, collections and penal provisions, of the various pieces of legislation that are currently administered by the Inland Revenue Department’.
Further by Memo dated December 3rd, 2020 from the Ministry of Finance, Economic Growth, Job Creation, External affairs and Public Service headed by the former Prime Minister states:
‘The Department of Finance wishes to inform that Cabinet by Conclusion no. 1511 of 2020 considered a memorandum dated 13th November 2020, submitted by the Department of Finance and approved the request for creation of the Tax Administrative Procedures Act to harmonize the administrative, collections and penal provisions, of the various pieces of legislation that are currently administered by the Inland Revenue Department. The aforementioned is for your attention and necessary action.’
It is clear that instructions for preparation of the draft bill came from the former Minister of Finance. Let me inform the public of Saint Lucia that the cabinet which I lead has never seen the draft bill now in circulation.
It is my understanding that consistent with our approach of transparency, dialogue and open government the draft bill prepared on instruction of the former prime minister is open for public discussion.
My government policy on tax is clear. We have increased the thresh-hold to $25,500. Anyone who earns less than $2,5000.00 annually pays no income tax.
My government has given the most generous tax amnesty in the history of Saint Lucia, where all forms of fines, penalties and interest have been cancelled on all outstanding tax arrears including VAT.
It is commendable that civil society is discussing the draft bill now in circulation, which will no doubt lead to the presentation to Cabinet of a discussed document.
I urge the public, to take the opportunity to settle their outstanding taxes by May, 2024.
Pierre, give me a freaking break. A bill was drafted but not in circulation. You have stopped other things before. If you had any intention of stopping the bill, why did you even circulate it. Another one of your tactics but at the end you just insult the massive thinking they are stupid.
The guy has no creative ways of initiating economic activities. With over a Billion dollars in debt, soon the lenders will not trust SLU to lend them money. He has to come up with ways to generate money. One of the ways is to get blood out of stones from the very same people who trusted them to lead this country. A leader just needs a vision and get other people to help him bring that vision to reality. Pierre has neither. He has no vision and he does not have the right people to help him. He is going to hostage the people – there are more to come from this guy and it will not be the nicest of things.
The former government also initiated the Rodney Bay road improvement and, the SLP stopped it. The former gov’t also initiated the BOX at St. Jude, and the SLP stopped it. The former gov’t initiated several projects and initiatives that the SLP has stopped, so why continue with this one. Come on Pierre, please come better than that
Pierre you are seriously deluded to think that we Saint Lucians will fall for that snake oil politics you are trying to sell us….so interestingly, it was the previous administration who initiated the draft tax bill but it appears you were going along with the plans to push it on the populace. But due to push backs and blow backs you are now putting the blame on the former administration for initiating a draft tax bill which you evidently could have stopped being the incumbent…….I presume had this bill meet with public approval, you would claim it as one of your flagship ideas….you ain’t fooling me on that one…. because your history has proved you are quite capable of cancelling other ideas initiated by the former administration…these politicians look like fools trying to make us look like fools…
Lool pjp the taxes PM by the time 5 years is up st.lucia will be in over 19 billion in debt with no seeing where that money wet
Gaslighting the populace!
They think we are stupid and foolish.
Further proof that neither PJP nor his sycophants are capable of governance.
Why was the PM pitting forth the alleged bill of the party voted out years ago? He wasn’t, it’s all a lie and he doesn’t want to take responsibility for the idiocy he and his cabal of clowns brought forth.
This guy is truly disgusting. Lack of ownership and finger pointing is a sign of a weak leader.
Imagine if you are in the private sector as a cEO and every disastrous policy decision you implement, you say it’s not me it’s the last guy! You’d be out of a &&– job!
At my age I never come across a prime minister that lie like Philip Joseph Pierre the pm of st Lucia..When he get caught in his lies he will stumble awa so shameful of that man st Lucian’s read to understand.
If one would duly recognise, a few days ago the Prime Minister released some very plump and juicy GDP figures. One would swear that meant everything was nice and rosy in Saint Lucia. That his fat and rotund GDP figures was benefiting the ordinary man and woman on the street. He released double GDP growth figures for 2022 & 2023, that unemployment fell to 16.5% by 2022. World Bank, ECLAC and IMF predicts economic gains for Saint Lucia in 2024…and the Department of Finance forecast a GDP growth rate of 5.2% in 2024…..very nice fat, rotund figures but word on the street is people are being squeezed as the so called fat figures get fatter….so now that these gros fesse figures are released to soften the populace, to mamaguy them into believing all is nice and cushy, the PM is now forwarding this draft tax bill to further carponé the people….but the bite back from local voices has backed him into a corner and like a cornered rat, he placed the blame on the former administration… blaming them for a bill he the Prime Minister can throw out…I tell ya, politicians taketh us for fools….
Peep you are a disgrace
PJP THE JACK IN THE BOX.
Man convened a whole press conference entitled “Draft Tax Administration and Procedure bill” only to say that it’s not a bill just a piece of paper that he had never seen or read before. You have not read the document but can produce a memo from the last government related to the document. Boy Saint Lucians if that’s not an insult to our intelligence I don’t know what is. And then he interrupts the news reporters when they ask questions and then uses this condescending tone to respond to them.
I have a few questions for you Mr PJP
1. Who authorized the document to be out in the public domain since you said you had not seen it? Was it “leaked”?
2. So you’re in government for almost 3 years and youre unaware of what adepartment under your purview is doing?
That clown is a leader alright. He leads a clown alley. This man is hell-bent on deception, misrepresentations and duplicity to get his point across. This new utterance shows that he is incapable of taking ownership of anything difficult. A leader is someone who makes decisions and stand by them. Once again, Pierre is back on the Chastanet’s fault treadmill. That man needs to get a backbone really fast. After years in office he has not realized his ship has already left port. People are exhausted with his constant complaints about things past. Gassa, just do the people’s work and correct the problems that you encounter. His constant crying is a symptom of poor leadership. He doesn’t get it.
The Draft Tax Bill is something he has influence over. He can kill it like some of the other Chastanet’s creations. It’s not something written in stone. Pierre has zero leadership skills. He is just a party bomb-thrower who feels comfortable fighting in the streets. Firing incendiary hyperbole to semi-illiterates is what Pierre does best.
Pierre needs to stop bullying reporters when they are asking questions and trying to do their jobs. He confused himself with his lies and then lashes out when cornered. Worse than Chastenet! And why is Rehani answering questions for Pierre so much so that Pierre himself needs to intervene to tell him and Paul allow the reporters to ask their questions. These guys are shameful. Frustrating their own. People get government comms jobs and forget that they were once reporters!
Oh you didn’t STOP this one but all the others you all are making fun of or criticize them.
St Lucians open your eyes and minds to realize that this guy Mr Pierre is a fraud. Every time the man is cornered for some bad policy he jumps on it started with the Chastenet administration. Remember the new passports. After we pay such a high price, it is now a 4 and a half year passport, not 5 years. He stopped everything that would have benefited St Lucians and changed others that suited his agenda but throw dust in our face so we can’t see his disdain and wickedness. Imagine 4 flights landed at HIA during the week with close to 1000 passengers who had to wait in the airplanes for almost an hour because it was raining heavily. Mr Helaire and Pierre don’t see the urgent need for a new airport. Wasn’t it stopped so do the same with this Tax Bill.