I refer to the editorial regarding what is described as “tax collection ineptitude” (October 30). As former chairman of the board of special commissioners (income tax) serving for upwards of 10 years under three different prime ministers, I must ask what comparative exercises have been carried out by the Auditor General or the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, for that matter, to check what is the present decision rates situation under the Administrative Justice Act Chapter 490 when compared with the former national tax appeals tribunal under the Income Tax Management Act.

The Administrative Justice Act threw out of the window all the major benefits of administrative law as formerly existing and practised by the BOSC, including speedier decisions on appeals, quicker collection of dues where applicable by the local fisco, quicker decisions by the Court of Appeals on points of law and, of course, all following principles of natural justice.

Either the Ministry of Finance or the Ministry of Justice badly need to have clear results at their disposal in respect of such an efficiency outcomes exercise. What such an exercise will not manage to bring up, of course, is whether that law had been introduced in 2007 mainly as a sop to the legal profession.