Not me!

Questions posed to leader of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP), Mia Mottley, about tax waivers granted when that Party was in power, have caused former Prime Minister Owen Arthur to make his position on the matters known.

In a press conference hastily called yesterday morning at the offices of Barbados Today, located at Manor Lodge, St. Michael, Arthur responded to concerns raised by Prime Minister Freundel Stuart that a tax write-off of close to half a million dollars was granted to Mottley’s father by Arthur’s administration. Arthur told reporters that Mottley’s father had in fact requested a waiver, but he denied the request. He said the request is one he remembers because of its “outrageous nature”.

“In my whole experience as Prime Minister and Minister of Finance there was no circumstance under which I did, or would have waived tax payable on millions of dollars, including and especially the father of a member of the Cabinet. I can go categorically on the record as saying that,” Arthur contended.

He went on to explain that the law states how the Cabinet and Parliament should manage the process of the granting of waivers, and he maintained such was not met. He said under the law, while a Minister of Finance can with the approval of Cabinet waive taxes, it is on the condition that having done so he or she has to take the matter to Parliament by way of an Order to uphold transparency and accountability.

“The laws of Barbados say that if a Minister of Finance brings an Order to Parliament waiving a tax, Parliament can by negative resolution overturn that waiver… I am in a position to say that I am aware that Ms. Mottley’s father applied to me for a waiver of the tax and as I said earlier, as Minister of Finance, I never did, or would have agreed to a waiver of a tax on income running into millions of dollars,” he told reporters.

The former Prime Minister said he can only confirm the request was made and denied, and he therefore has no knowledge as to if such a waiver did occur. As such, he made it clear that if such did occur, it was not done with the consent of him as head of Cabinet, nor did it go to Parliament for final approval.

Arthur said having now made public all he knows on the issue, the ball is in Ms. Mottley’s court to shed further light on it, should she know the details.

Arthur also touched on the suggestions made that millions of dollars in property transfer tax and stamp duty was waived by the former BLP Government, during the merger between the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Barclays Bank to form FirstCaribbean. Arthur denied knowledge of such as well, noting that as a shareholder he was careful throughout his tenure as Prime Minister not to get involved in any matter pertaining to the company, recusing himself from any discussions so as not to raise concerns about a conflict of interest.

“I did not participate in the matter of property transfer tax because it would have raised a conflict of interest on my part. I’m not sure if I was out of the country when it was done, but even if I was in the country, I would not have been in a position to participate in the decision. But I would have been in a position to have told Cabinet that I would think that it would have been a little bit excessively generous, unless there was something that the Government had committed itself by the way in which the terms of the agreement to constitute FirstCaribbean here, as a Caribbean company, was arranged,” he stated.