Finance Minister Paula Cox and Attorney General Larry Mussenden deserve credit for announcing plans to move on delinquent taxpayers and pension contributors. The bill for those, largely employers, who are 90 days behind now stands at $37 million, an enormous amount.

That the government is now getting serious about prosecuting people who ignore the law ? and, in the case of pension contributions, effectively steal their employees? money ? has to be welcomed.

Of course, it is one ting to announce that a special prosecutions team is being set up to deal with the problem, and quite another to actual see prosecutions and convictions follow. But it is a start and a welcome one.

As Ms Cox was quick to note on Wednesday, this is not a new problem and it is not unique to the Progressive Labour Party Government. But it is also true that for the first five or six years after the PLP came to power, it did little or nothing to pursue delinquent taxpayers. Government has made some progress in reducing the arrears since then.

Some $9 million was recovered by a dedicated team in the Tax Commissioner?s Office last year. However, there are signs that the pace has to be increased. Special audits revealed a further $7.7 million owed in payroll taxes ? presumably the result of under-reporting by employers ? while the overall total of outstanding debt rose to $37 million, meaning that warnings from the Government are not being heeded.

The worrying point of this is that even as Government has increased its efforts to recover taxes and pension contributions, the total amount owed continues to rise.

That?s not entirely surprising, because for all the good work that Government has done, it was reluctant to prosecute or to punish those who ignored the law. Indeed some of the most egregious tax avoiders have been on the books since Auditor General Larry Dennis started naming and shaming them, suggesting that they have no interest in attempting to pay their taxes.

One of the problems with prosecuting companies is that the penalties for the offences have not been changed in years. If a company owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes but only risks a fine of a few hundred dollars, then the law is no deterrent.

It was disappointing that there was no mention from Mr. Mussenden on Wednesday of plans to increase the penalties for these offences; he can threaten prosecution all he wants, but what?s the point if some employers would be happy to pay the minuscule fine instead of making up the back taxes, which still must be pursued in the civil courts.

It is possible that prison time would be a deterrent. The problem, of course, is if the employer is in prison, he is even less likely to pay his taxes; but the deterrent effect to others of a short, sharp shock to the worst offenders might be worth it.

But the best solution is to reform the law and make the penalties hurt employers in the wallet. It is encouraging that Government is beginning to take steps to get money back from companies with Government contracts. Where a company with a Government contract does fall behind on taxes, this should be a two-stop process.

The first would be to withhold the tax monies owed when new payments come due. The second would be to ban those companies who fail to pay taxes from receiving any Government money at all.

Indeed, the idea of using Government contracts to ?claw back? revenues is a little distasteful since it suggests that people who wilfully ignore tax laws will be rewarded by still receiving Government money. In the meantime, law-abiding businesses must do without. That?s an extreme possibility, but it shows how governments everywhere are on the horns of a dilemma when it comes to collecting back taxes from businesses, many of which are probably already in financial trouble.

If the aim is purely to punish those who flout the law, then the punishment itself may reduce Government?s chances of recovering what is owed. But when there is no attempt to punish, it simply encourages others to break the law as well.

Perhaps the best course would be to prosecute the five worst offenders to the fullest extent if the law. In many of these cases, the amounts are so vast that the chances of getting the full amount back are slim.

And the effect of seeing a few employers spend some time behind bars would have a remarkable effect on the rest of the business community.