While it welcomes the move to give the revenue authority access to the banking data of citizens, the Private Sector Com-mission (PSC) has written to the government urging it to take parallel steps for data protection and privacy rights.
The government recently tabled for first reading in Parliament the Financial Institutions (Amendment) Bill 2015. According to the 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 Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), where a law so requires or where the revenue authority makes a lawful request or demand for the information.
In a letter to Attorney General Basil Williams dated November 4 and released to the media yesterday, PSC Chairman Norman 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.
“We do have some concerns, however, and these relate to data protection and privacy rights. We are cognizant that the granting of legislative authority for access to citizens’ bank account data is not peculiar to Guyana and many countries around the world, particularly the more developed ones, have similar provisions in their legislation. However, jurisdictions where such legislation exists usually have corresponding provisions dealing with criteria for access and protection of the data once accessed or released,” the private sector said.
It said that it had researched this issue and found examples in the United Kingdom which has a Data Protection Act and in the United States of America where the protection is contained in the same Act which provides for access, together with Regulations governing the criteria for the federal revenue authority’s access to and utilisation of the data. The PSC said that as a short-term measure, the latter approach may be more prudent while a more general data protection mechanism is developed.
The PSC said that in the absence of a Data Protec-tion Act, it would prefer to see an Amend-ment which caters to these concerns, and corresponding Regula-tions guiding the Guyana Revenue Authority on the following areas:
– Criteria governing requests for access
– Notice to be served on citizens regarding intended request for access along with an indication of the law for which enforcement is being sought via such access
– Care and control when such data is in the custody of the Revenue Authority
– Recourse available to citizens if said data is unlawfully released or published by the Revenue Authority.
The letter said that members of the Legal and Regulatory Sub-Commit-tee and the Executive Management Committee of the Private Sector Com-mission are prepared to meet with Williams at his convenience to further ex-plore these suggestions.
