Not NACC’s duty to look into whether politicians have paid their taxes, sec-gen says
The National Anti-Corruption Commission can at best look into increases in the assets and overall worth of politicians and report to the Revenue Department whether taxes should have been paid on such gains, but not look into whether or not they have actually paid their taxes, NACC secretary-general Sansern Poljiak said on Monday.
The NACC is obliged to examine the assets of political office holders as well as high-ranking officials and it would help look into any increase in their assets and financial worth when asked by the department to do so, he said.
If any politician informed the commission that they had received no income in any particular year, it would report the matter to the Revenue Department so that it could verify the facts itself, he added.
Sansern stressed that it was not the agency’s direct duty to investigate politicians’ tax payments, as that was the responsibility of the revenue agency.
His clarification follows the ongoing tax-collection examination of at least 60 politicians.
At least four former ministers have reported to the NACC that they had no revenue in certain years and therefore did not pay taxes for those financial years.