Exorbitant Business Fee by TCGCC

The Issue: Tinian Casino Gaming Control Commission levies business fees for
anybody doing business with Tinian Dynasty.

Our View: Department of Commerce must probe whether this isn’t a case
of double taxation on the part of TCGCC.

A number businesses have received a letter from the Tinian Gaming and Casino Commission requiring that one must file an application with TCGCC when doing business with Tinian Dynasty which includes a fee of $500.

TCGCC may be legally situated to levy such exorbitant fee, but it brings into question the supremacy of Marianas-wide law over semi-autonomous regulations imposing fees. Which set of statute must be followed: 1). The CNMI-wide business license statute that covers this requirement? 2). Both Marianas-wide business license law and that of a municipal level regulatory requirement such as that being promulgated by TCGCC’s?

It is rather confusing how TCGCC defines “business relationship” with Tinian Dynasty. Does it entail businesses Marianas-wide seeking the provision of certain services for Tinian Dynasty? Is it a cart blanche definition regardless of who sought the services of one or the other, i.e., Tinian Dynasty purchasing food and other items from grocery and hardware stores on Saipan? If such is the definition of a “business relationship”, then it goes without saying that every private firm who has any dealings with Tinian Dynasty must fork out $500 in fees in order to do business with Tinian’s TD.

This issue needs clarification by the CNMI Department of Commerce. Moreover, TCGCC must buckle down and explore whether levying additional fees against businesses who provide services to Tinian Dynasty isn’t a strangling policy that would immediately discourage any further business activities between merchants on Tinian, Rota,
Saipan and Guam. Understandably, these are difficult times and the notion of piling one more fee on top of a pile of fees isn’t going to allow for additional revenue generation. The net effect of such a fee would discourage a healthy business relationship among businessmen.

TCGCC needs to be positive and proactive in its dealings with other businesses from near and far. To fall prey to the notion that strangling and stifling measures would encourage business transactions and lasting investments is to carve out a bleak future for an already struggling casino and hotel investment in the Taga Stone famous isle. This aged-old local paradigm of taxing businesses to the hilt must be discouraged. Suffice it to say, TCGCC too must learn to live in both good and bad times.

The sum of $500 in business fee is a bit too steep for struggling businesses who had to endure the assaults of the Asian crisis. It is the wrong prescription and in no way will it encourage revenue generation. How does TCGCC justify its $500 business relationship fee? In Hong Kong, Asia’s business hub, one need only play $50 for a business license. There’s hardly any measure ever approved or so designed to trip new business ventures. This is something that TCGCC must learn in our collective effort to assist Tinian Dynasty muddle through these difficult times. Si Yuus Maase`!