Attorney General Dale Marshall intends to deal with the legislation restricting the use of dark tint on vehicles when Parliament resumes from its Easter break.
He told the DAILY NATION yesterday that the new law which was supposed to be in place from January had been further delayed because of the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure and the Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposals presented by Government during the past two months.
“We said that we would enact it in January and that when it is enacted, there would be a grace period. The grace period is after enactment,” he said.
“This year we had to deal with the Estimates; all sorts of stuff has taken up the attention of the Parliament. We’ve now taken a break after a marathon set of meetings. So when we resume from the Easter recess during April, we will then deal with the enacting the tint legislation,” Marshall added.
He gave the assurance that after the legislation is put into action, motorists would be given three months to comply.
“So in effect, they have had time but once it is passed, there will be a three-month grace period,” he noted.
While Marshall has not indicated the percentage of tint to be implemented, he said the tint providers were already operating with the anticipated changes in mind.
Tint meters
Last December the Attorney General announced in a parliamentary statement that restriction of the use of dark tints on vehicles would become law with an amendment to the Road Traffic Act.
At the time he stated that the regulation would be implemented in January. However, it was deferred for the importation of tint meters – a small rectangular device attached to both sides of the vehicle window and used to read the grading of tint.
Those meters are already on the island and members of the Barbados Police Service have been undergoing training.
Marshall had said this was another crime-fighting tool intended to support the work of the police.
He said last year: “One of those law enforcement initiatives was the enactment of a new regime to regulate the use of tint on motor vehicles which would see the prohibition of dark tints which obscure the view into the vehicle . . . . This measure will not be a prohibition of the use of tint. It only seeks to do what is globally a commonplace measure – that is, the restriction on the use of dark tints on motor vehicles.”
He also revealed that the necessary legislation to amend the Road Traffic Act as well as the required regulations were all prepared and the amendment to the Act had been laid in Parliament.
Tint providers have said that the 20 per cent grade was the accepted standard, but without the legislation outlining which per cent Government would implement, they were in the dark.
(MB)
