The government has set aside five to six months for the parties to discuss the Suriname Tax Authority Act before it is discussed in the National Assembly (DNA). This was stated by Finance and Planning Minister Silvano Tung Ahin provisionally, Thursday, at the presidential press conference on current affairs.

Customs and excise unions and recipients of import and excise duties strongly opposed the bill that had already been introduced to DNA. Tjong-Ahin announced that the tax director had met with unions and members of parliament.

“It is about a process that took several months to consider all the objections and amendments that people want to make,” the minister stressed. So the law will not be discussed until the unions lose their comments. Tjong-Ahin said that after the ministry heard the comments, it should have acknowledged that there are points in the law that could be better served.

President Chan Santokhi said outside experts are helping tax authorities with tax regulations and legal products. He noted that there were sometimes problems in providing good information, participation and advice to take everyone’s views into account.

“These are very technical laws and there are important target groups in the community that require further consultation and have visions for possible modifications. There needs to be discussion.” The Chair said that the discussion should be where CSOs and experts are heard. Everything is also carefully considered from a legal technical point of view.

There is no resistance from the ministry for not taking into account the arguments presented by the lawyers and the union. On the contrary, there may have been a little enthusiasm from the government, but we are quite open to discussing the concept and it will work,” said Tjon-Ahin.

He stressed that there was no talk of repealing the law, but rather room to talk about it. According to him, the parties can be assured of the existence of space. Recently, the tax manager was a guest on DNA and the union representatives were also present.