Opposition Slams SARA as PUP Power Grab

The government says it’s about efficiency. The opposition calls it a power grab. At the heart of the debate is SARA, the new Semiautonomous Revenue Authority that could take over tax collection in Belize. Supporters argue it will modernize the system. Critics warn that it could strip away checks and balances, leaving too much control in too few hands. So, is SARA a smart reform, or a risky move?

 

Patrick Faber, Opposition Senator

“This PUP administration has conceptualized and is moving very strongly to put in place SARA, which is the Semiautonomous Revenue Authority, to collect taxes for our country. And there intention is that they are centralizing power, but they are really, if you look at it, weakening the checks and balance of this system. When you are an employer and you have fifteen thousand public servants, teachers BDF, police officers, all of these people working under you and you are going to give out the task, if you will, of collecting taxation to, they are calling it an authority which is semi-government, but we all know who will ultimately play the tune that all is going to dance to here. It is the Ministry of Finance and that authority will be immune from the injection of opinion; from the blowing of whistles, if you will, for whatever irregularities could happen in tax collection in this country when you put it in the hands of this semi-private, semi-government authority.”