Barbados Opposition Criticizes Anti-Money Laundering Initiative

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

09 November 2001

The Barbados Leader of the Opposition, David Thompson, has criticized the government's new money laundering initiatives, suggesting that a planned amendment could affect more people than intended, and that ordinary citizens and shopkeepers conducting 'informal' transactions overseas may become entangled in regulatory procedures.

Speaking to the House of Assembly on Tuesday, Mr Thompson expressed concerns that the new $10,000 stipulation could cause the everyday transactions of vendors who go overseas to shop for stock to fall under the amended provision, leading to time-consuming investigations if proof in the form of VAT or income tax documentation cannot be found. 'It is not always tidy - and certainly a matter that constitutional lawyers have raised - to have provisions that amend the Constitution at large,' he argued.

He said that the Government should ask itself whether it was desirable to waste considerable amounts of time investigating citizens engaged in smaller, 'informal' transactions, when their stated target is terrorist organisations and large scale money launderers, and requested that the proposals be reconsidered.

Mr Thompson also expressed fears that the government seems to be more focussed on meeting international regulatory requirements than on the needs of the Barbadian people, and asked the ruling Barbados Labour Party to clarify exactly what degree of sovereignty the country will lose by complying with the requests of multilateral organisations such as the OECD.

Recommended