Ministry accuses Sant of not knowing VAT law

The Finance Ministry has accused Labour leader Alfred Sant of not knowing the VAT law and promising something which has already been done by the government.

The ministry said Dr Sant had been reported promising to remove the prison term when somebody failed to settle a court-imposed fine in VAT cases.

Yet this amendment to the law was made by the government last year after consultation with the GRTU.

The ministry explained that whenever somebody failed to submit a VAT return, the VAT Department sent repeated reminders, and if they were ignored, it instituted court proceedings against the person responsible for sending the returns. This period took at least three years.

When there was a conviction, the court imposed a fine and a penalty for every day that the fine remained unpaid. Before the 2007 amendments, whenever the convicted person persisted in defying the law, the court had a right to convert the fine into a prison term.

However, following the amendment, people involved in such cases could, within 30 days of the final decision of the court ,submit an application to the court asking for a full or partial pardon of the penalties imposed by the court, in agreement with the prosecution and the Commissioner of VAT.

This amendment was approved by Parliament on December 12,2007 and signed by the President at the end of the year. The amendment applied for cases which had not yet been moved in court and on which no sentence had been handed down.

As for the cases on which a sentence had been given, the law still provided for a Presidential pardon for the fines, on condition that one accepted to perform his obligations according to law.