Senate President Paul A. Manglona, Ind.-Rota, in an interview yesterday said they will ask Finance to explain the delay and provide them with the numbers.
The law created a trust fund for rebates to ensure that taxpayers get their refunds not later than six months after filing their income tax returns every tax year.
Since the economic slowdown that began in 1998, however, the release of the rebates has been delayed each year.
“We know that from day one, that (rebate) has to be given back,” Manglona said.
The Senate’s Ad-hoc Committee on Tax Policy and Enforcement Review will look into the issue, he added.
He said the Senate panel was created to find ways to generate revenue and will also look at the possibility of reducing the rebate rates — which is a tax hike.
“We are not there yet, but that is something we want to look at,” Manglona said.
Many taxpayers have yet to get their rebates and federal stimulus checks which were first released four months ago.
One of them told this reporter that she had repeatedly asked the Division of Revenue and Taxation about it, but was told that there was a problem about her record.
The last time she tried to follow-up on her rebate check, she was told to check the Department of Finance. She found out that no rebate checks were being processed.
Press Secretary Angel A. Demapan, in an email, said the total amount of funds in the rebate trust account was short by about $2 million.
He said the cash-strapped CNMI government did not use any of the funds from the rebate trust account for payroll.
“True to its promise, the government did not use any funds from the rebate trust account for payroll. The pending checks are a result of those tax returns that were found to be deficient and had to undergo the process of correction,” Demapan said.
The total amount of funds in the rebate trust account, he said, “was shy of about $2 million.”
To cover this shortfall, Demapan said the government must now turn to its cash collections, which the Department of Finance is now addressing.
