I asked the following questions of the Minister of Treasury and Resources in the budget debate at the December 2012 States Meeting.
Sir, I’m going to be brief and just ask 2 questions of the Minister.
In relation to Table A on page 35, bearing in mind the level of Tax on Real Property for office accommodation being used for regulated activities is 3 times that of unregulated activities, how can his department be satisfied that it is collecting the maximum tax due?
Given the vast majority of office accommodation is rented, and landlords may not be experts in what is, or isn’t a regulated activity, how are they expected to know whether their tenant is undertaking such an activity?
My second point is in relation to the wording used in section 4.17 regarding the cash limits for the Public Accounts Committee. Reading this is would be easy to get the mistaken impression that the Committee has increased its budget for the financial controls review.
A look at the Committee’s budget for 2013 on page 69 makes it abundantly clear that this is far from the case and has been reduced by 20%. I would therefore be grateful if the Minister will affirm that this is the case and that the Public Accounts Committee can rightly be seen to be leading by example.