WE DON'T NEED THE GST TO BOOST REVENUE!.. JUST corruption free EFFICIENCY

The letter by 'Tax Accountant' WE DON'T NEED THE GST TO BOOST REVENUE! is a very revealing letter, and has also demonstrated his willingness to "get to the root" of some of the more serious problems of raising revenue and improving productivity in the country. I will not repeat the details of what he has written, but the gist that can be gleaned from the letter is that,.. if the Government will just put in more effort in ensuring that the tax laws that are in existence are properly and strictly enforced, THERE IS NO NEED FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF THE GST!!

The first suggestion he gave, and which gave me a shock, is that the IRB has outsourced and paid billions to "private contractors" to sort and file the Return Forms received every year. Horrors! From my very superficial understanding of the Tax Form filing process, the IRB has from inception, sorted and filed the Return Forms on its own, without "outside" help. I would have thought the workload would have lessened when the IRB computerized and encouraged taxpayers to use E-filing, thus having less forms to file? Besides, when the IRB introduced "self assessment", the workload would have been further reduced? if having made its operations more efficient by reducing manual effort, why then do you need to pay "private contractors" to sort out the Return Forms? Also, will the confidentiality of our financial and personal information be compromised by this 'intrusion'?

The second suggestion given by the writer, is even more startling! He is declaring that the present Sales and Services Tax collection process is blatantly corrupt, and that has spawned very serious under collection of the SST, and which has also apparently made the Customs a "laughing stock" of the business community, and a "favoured" posting for officers who dream of living the "good life". His assertion that proper collection of the SST can increase our revenue 500 times (and thus obviate the necessity of the GST) over is something we cannot ignore, if we are really serious about tackling corruption, at the same time increasing revenue without causing hardship to the people. Perhaps the Govt should make this target a measurable KPI for the Customs, AS WELL AS for the MACC?