The Private Sector Commission (PSC) met with Attorney General (AG) Basil Williams at the AG’s Chambers on Wednesday to discuss the Financial Institutions (Amendment) Bill 2015 which seeks to give the revenue authority access to banking information.
A release from the AG’s Chambers said that during the discussions the PSC delegation headed by its Chairman Norman McLean indicated that it had no difficulty with the proposed amendments but was interested in certain safeguards to protect data obtained by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
The AG who was accompanied by the Chief Parliamentary Counsel Cecil Dhurjon gave the PSC the assurance that their concerns would be examined and addressed, the release said.
Last week, the PSC disclosed that it had written Williams urging parallel steps for data protection and privacy rights.
According to its explanatory memorandum, the bill seeks to amend section 63 of the Financial Institutions Act to permit disclosure of customer information by a financial institution to the GRA, where a law so requires or where the revenue authority makes a lawful request or demand for the information.
In a letter to Williams dated November 4 and released to the media yesterday, McLean said the PSC “welcomes the move to provide access by the Revenue Authority to the financial banking data of citizens as this would certainly aid tax enforcement mechanisms and should reduce the incidence of tax avoidance.” However, it raised some anxieties.
