Editor,

AS a business operator in Tonga I am concerned about actions being taken against legitimate business operators by Revenue Services; for the record I have no issues before the courts but I am aware of a number of well-known and respected business entities who are suffering.

I have experienced the difficult attitude of some department staff for a period of time now and I cannot see any justifiable reason for court action against registered Tonga business operations until a review is held into the department about what appears to be uneven methods of enforcement. As was recently said by one Minister about business in Tonga, "there needs to be an even playing field".

There seems to be a resurgence in recent weeks of the pursuit of revenue by way of "penalty payments". . . I know of one business in recent days being advised of a substantial penalty payment imposed for so called infractions two years ago (unknown to the business until the letter was served this week).

Let's also not forget a number of businesses in Tonga are owed money from the department and have to wait for their payments. They can't impose penalties on the department or even add interest, they can't demand payment the way the department does. It's a very uneven "one way street".

Then there's the matter of penalty waiver, how can some have penalties waived, and others not?

Certainly, the country is short of money and, certainly, the department plays a major part in the country's revenue stream, but the never ending hammering of the legitimate business operators is simply getting us nowhere.

There has been little, if any, activities reported against the non-registered business operators.

Many thought that the elections would bring a fresh approach to the needs of local business, but the reality is that while we have new ministers there has been no significant change to date in the public service way of doing things.

My point is that local business needs to be defended by government, and Revenue Services needs to stop using the legitimate business operators as their sole source of revenue. Inflating revenue totals by penalties is not helping the country, putting so much pressure on local businesses that they consider shutting down is not helping the country.

Better that the department pursue the non-registered, non- tax paying, tax-evading operations than the legitimate registered businesses who are making every effort to comply and struggling to survive.

Yes, we can all have our problems with returns and other department matters from time to time but at least we are out in the open, our offices are easy to find, we employ local staff, and most of us are trying to do the right thing.

Harry Garrahy

operations [at] cashcorp-tonga [dot] com ( operations [at] cashcorp-tonga [dot] com)
Ma'ufanga

Editor's Note: This letter was abridged for length.