VIEW to reverse the Parliamentary Entitlements Commission (PEC) previous award in exempting Members of Parliament from paying salary taxes is highly commended by The Solomon Islands Council of Trade Unions (SICTU).

This comes after the current discussions between PEC and the Tax Department of the Ministry of Finance.

SICTU delegation discussing the issue of MPs Tax free award with members of PEC last week consisted of SICTU President David Tuhanuku, SICTU National Secretary who is also the general Secretary of the Workers Union of Solomon Islands (WUSI) Mr Tony Kagovai and General Secretary of the Solomon Islands Public Employees Union (SIPEU) Robert Au.

In a statement yesterday, Mr Tuhanuku said that while SICTU welcomes what PEC and the Tax Department are doing, it is equally important that the interests of MPs must also be taken in consideration.

He said this is because changes to their entitlements now would affect the take home pay they have been receiving under the current tax free award.

“However, the whole debate has pointed to the need for a major tax review and SICTU is counting on the Prime Minister as he pledged in a recent letter to SICTU on this subject,” said Tuhanuku.

“A pledge to consider establishing a broader review of the fundamentals of the country’s tax regime and at the same time such a review must also take into account the fact that our National Government is likely to continue to depend largely on the taxes we pay to finance its annual national budgets for many years to come,” he said.