GOVERNMENT’S PLANS to establish the long mooted Central Revenue Authority (CRA) are getting the thumbs down from civil servants.
Their complaint is that Government wants the new agency – which will be an amalgamation of the Inland Revenue Department, the Value Added Tax Division, the Land Tax Department, the revenue collecting arm of the Licensing Authority and the Customs and Excise Department – to function as a statutory corporation under the aegis of a board. However, the 700 plus civil servants who are supposed to be seconded to work with the new entity prefer to be governed by the rules and regulations of the public service.
The SATURDAY SUN understands the workers have voiced this concern to their trade union representative, the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW), in two separate meetings in recent weeks.
The NUPW’s acting general secretary Delcia Burke confirmed that the union and Government had met over the establishment of the body, which is targeted to start operations by April 1.
