Parliament passes Presidents' pensions bill
-Chief Justice, Chancellor to be paid tax-free
Stabroek News
April 30, 2004
Parliament yesterday passed two pieces of legislation, one to provide superannuation benefits to the President and his predecessors and the other to make the emoluments of the Chief Justice and the Chancellor of the Judiciary, tax-free.
Both bills were passed as printed after being considered clause by clause when the National Assembly resolved itself into committee. Bill No 4/2004 - the Pensions (President) Bill was read for the first time on March 15 while Bill No. 6/ 2004 - the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill was read for the first time on March 19.
The Presidents' Pensions Bill provides for the President to receive a pension of seven-eighths of the annual salary of the President in office "and shall continue as seven-eighths of such annual salary of each of his successors."
It said too that when a person dies while he is President or while he is entitled to receive the President's pension and he leaves a widow, the widow shall be paid a pension at an annual rate equivalent to one half of the President's salary.
The bill will be deemed to have come into operation on December 18, 1980.
As such the legislation will provide benefits to the eligible members of the late President Forbes Burnham's family, to the widow of former President Desmond Hoyte, as well as former President and First Lady Janet Jagan and Prime Minister Sam Hinds.
Clause 4 of the bill states that "when a person dies while he is President or while he is entitled to receive the President's pension leaving entitled children, each of such children shall be paid, until he dies or ceases to be an entitled child, such allowance at such rate as the President shall determine."
Where a person dies while he is President and does not leave a widow or entitled child, a gratuity not exceeding the highest annual rate of salary payable to the deceased person at the time would be paid to the legal representative of the deceased.
The second piece of legislation amends the Income Tax Act so that the emoluments of the Chancellor of the Judiciary and the Chief Justice are made non-taxable, as is the President's. "Section 13 (a) of the Principal Act (Income Tax Act) is hereby amended by the insertion immediately after the word "Guyana" of the words 'and the provisions of this paragraph shall mutatis mutandis apply to the emoluments of the Chancellor and the Chief Justice.'"
Speaking yesterday in support of the passage of the Income Tax Amendment Bill, PPP/C Member of Parliament Bernard De Santos said that the judiciary is the bulwark of any democracy. "It is the guardian of the purity of our Constitution," he said.
De Santos noted that the two persons deserve the allowances that the bill was bestowing upon them with its passage.
At yesterday's sitting of the National Assembly held at the Ocean View Convention Centre at Liliendaal, MPs of the People's National Congress Reform (PNCR) were again granted leave in keeping with their non-participation in the Parliament. (Johann Earle)