Couriers allowed to withdraw challenge to online tax

Permission was granted by Justice Ricky Rahim for the courier companies to withdraw their legal challenge and no order was made for costs.

The nature of the resolution was not ventilated in court yesterday.

The matter was expected to go to trial after Rahim granted the six courier companies leave to have the court review the decision of the Government to implement the tax.

Ecouriers Ltd, Websource, Jet Box International, Aeropost, CSF Couriers and Caribbean Shipping Agencies were contending that the minister’s decision to implement the tax, which came into effect on October 20 last year after the national budget, was irrational, wholly unreasonable and disproportionate to any aim of the State and was done without adequate consultation.

They also contended they were not given a fair opportunity to be heard before the imposition of the tax and this was in violation of the principles of procedural fairness.

They were seeking declarations that their rights were violated by the minister when he implemented the tax and that they were unfairly discriminated against.

The fiscal measure was announced by the Finance Minister, Colm Imbert in the 2016-2017 budget statement.

Imbert said then that the new tax would be imposed on purchases that arrived in TT through courier companies or were brought in directly by individuals via air freight. This measure, he said, was expected to raise an additional $70 million revenue.

Representing the courier companies were attorneys Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes, Keith Scotland, Joel Roper, Gideon Mc- Master and Jacqueline Chang, while the Minister of Finance was represented by Senior Counsel Martin Daly and Jason Mootoo.

Representing the AG were Senior Counsel Fyard Hosein and Michael Quamina.