Victims of uninsured drivers sue State

Justice Ricky Rahim granted to Davindra Maharaj and the Motor Insurance Bureau Association of Trinidad and Tobago leave to have the court review the decision of the State to levy a six percent tax on insurance premiums.

For years, all motorists who have been paying insurance premiums have also been paying money to the State to place in a special fund set up to pay damages to persons who suffer in accidents involving cars without insurance.

In 2015, the sum contained in the fund was in excess of $1 billion, but the State has not been able to disburse any funds from the fund because of a lack of the requisite legal instruments to authorise payments. As a result, the fund has simply stood dormant.

Maharaj, who is also an attorney, and the Motor Insurance Bureau are expected to file their application for judicial review on Monday and are seeking declarations that the direction of the Minister of Finance to permit the levying of insurance premium taxes was contrary to the legal purpose of the Miscellaneous Taxes Act which deprived Maharaj’s legitimate expectation to be taxed in accordance with its legal purpose.

They are also seeking a declaration that the State was unjustly enriched through the payment of insurance premium taxes and that the failure of the State to establish a Motor Insurance Bureau for disbursing funds to compensate victims of accidents caused by uninsured drivers, while it actively allocated funds, was unreasonable.

The group of victims of uninsured drivers also want the State to pay into the court, the sums collected under the Accident Victims Compensation Fund for the benefit of victims of uninsured drivers to be determined by the court.

Maharaj said for the period January 11, 2011, to December 31, 2015, he paid $5,456.21 in insurance premium taxes, which he is seeking to recover as restitution.

He also quoted from the National Budget Statement by the late Prime Minister Patrick Manning for the 2008 financial year in which he identified road safety as an issue of priority and proposed to use the proceeds of the insurance premium tax to establish a fund to compensate victims of uninsured drivers.