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Issue No: 1021; 17 August 2001
High Court judge Justice John Byrne says that an elected Parliament is needed to make good tax laws. Justice Byrne's made the comments while delivering a judgment on VAT refund for a garment company which was refused the refund by the tax department. Justice Byrne stated that the VAT decree was passed by "some non-elected persons who did not have to account to Parliament for their actions. That is sufficient reason why its various provisions must be studied most carefully to ensure that justice is done to both the Commissioner for Inland Revenue and the person said to be liable to pay tax" The VAT decree was promulgated by the military backed regime in 1992. Some provisions of the decree give the tax commissioner too much power. It, for example, authorised him to "disobey any provisions of the Decree concerning assessments".. Judge Byrne further stated: "If there had been proper debate in Parliament I venture to suggest that no legislature at least in a democracy would have passed such draconian provisions (as in the VAT decree). Meanwhile the judgment on the Fiji Labour Party's challenge to
the Qarase regime's decision to reimpose VAT on essential items, is still to be
made by the High Court. |
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People's Coalition Government - Fiji Islands |
