LIEUTENANT Gov. Diego T. Benavente said he has recommended to Gov. Juan N. Babauta that a committee be formed to look into the financial records of the garment industry to determine if a proposal to increase user fee is feasible.
The special body’s report will also be used to establish the extent to which garment workers’ minimum wage can be increased.
“We need to know if they are in fact making millions and millions of dollars and big percentage in profit or not. This is the only way that we can establish whether there’s a need to increase the user fee or the minimum wage (in the garment industry),” Benavente said.
Although the garment industry has been submitting financial records to the government, Benavente said there is a need for “more transparency.”
“This administration is going to provide more effort in finding out those numbers, in being confident at the numbers that they provide. Of course, we have been receiving financial statements and documents that we have requested from the past.
“But not everyone is confident with those numbers. We need to somehow get numbers to which the administration, the Legislature and the people here in the CNMI have the confident feeling that these are in fact the real numbers,” Benavente said.
Benavente said the administration “is hoping that the garment industry would remain in status quo” as far as revenue is concerned.
He said though that he and the governor “will not ever commit on having additional factories.”
In a statement, Richard A. Pierce, president of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce said they will cooperate with whatever information the administration and the Legislature would ask.
“The SCC reiterates its pledge to work with this new administration and the elected leaders of the Senate and the House. We will attend to every request for testimony and comments on any attempt to affect our businesses that are vital to the government revenue and the standard of living here in the Commonwealth,” he said.
House Speaker Heinz S. Hofschneider, R-Saipan, earlier proposed for an increase in the user fee from 3.7 to 5 percent.
He said the additional revenue generated could help the Marianas Visitors Authority increase its budget to $12 million.
The increase, Hofschneider said, would likewise help complete the tourism-related Garapan Revitalization project.
The House and the Senate are also preparing a measure that would increase the minimum wage.
Benavente’s proposal has the support of Rep. Stanley T. Torres, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means and Rep. Herman T. Palacios, chairman of the Subcommittee on Labor and Immigration.
“Let’s look at how they are, if they are cheating us or not. If they are cheating us, then we are going to do something about it. But if they are not, then we’ll just say we are sorry because we have troubled them. But it is always better to be sure and that means going in and checking them out,” said Torres, R-Saipan.
Palacios, R-Saipan said he supports the move as “there is no sense for us to exempt people who are making a lot of money.”
Torres suggested that the Office of the Attorney General look into the tax records of the industry and check if it is being transparent on its income.
He said the Legislature also has the power to subpoena the industry’s financial records.
“And if they object, then we could go to court which could order them to open up their records,” he added.
