Government is set to release details of a long awaited tax review on Monday - six years after it was first commissioned.

Details of what exactly is to be released on Monday are scant, after Government simply announced the Minister of Finance Paula Cox will be holding a press conference in the afternoon on the “Tax Report”.

The report is believed to contain recommendations on changes in Bermuda's tax system - a highly sensitive issue and a political hot potato.

Ms Cox said yesterday she did not want to give away details of the press conference before the event but said: “I have already publicly stated on the floor of the House my intention to release the report on April 12, 2004.”

Opposition leader Grant Gibbons, who has been constantly campaigning for the report to be released, said yesterday: “It's been a long time coming. I am pleased to have it released.

“But it may be dated... things have changed since 1998, but it might at least provoke some discussion about how Government raises revenue. But there will be a question if it is still relevant.”

Premier Alex Scott pledged to release a backlog of reports to the public in August last year shortly after taking office following a call from then backbencher Dale Butler for Government to release a list of reports including the tax report, the review of the Bermuda Regiment, the civil service review and the asbestos report.

“I've had a conversation with the new Minister, Dale Butler and told him unless it has red ink on it that says ‘Top Secret', sure, it can go out,” said Mr. Scott at the time.

The tax review was initially commissioned by the United Bermuda Party Government, and since the PLP came into power in 1999 there have been demands that the report be made public.

At the time a UBP Cabinet saw the report but decided not to make the sensitive document public before a general election when they got their hands on it in 1998.

After the PLP swept into power, the new Government asked the authors of the report, Harry (Hank) Gutman and Eric Toader, to go back and look at parts of the review again.

It is not known what they were asked to add to the report or when the additional work was completed.

The Finance Minister, the late Eugene Cox, said that he would release the report in his first Budget, but over the years the report was never produced.

Dr. Gibbons has time and time again called for the tax document to be released and lambasted the Government for not being transparent and above board.

In the Opposition's response to the 2004/2005 Budget Statement, delivered in the House of Assembly in February, Dr. Gibbons said: “They never released the tax review, so we don't know anything about this Government's philosophy towards taxation.”

Government supporters said that the reason that the review had not been released was because the information contained in it might be too sensitive and that Government had not decided on a way forward.

It is not known if the report contains details on income tax - but it is known that the original brief from the UBP specifically said not to include income tax as a proposal. Both the UBP and PLP have said that income tax is not on their agenda.

At the time the tax review was originally commissioned there was a feeling that the economy was changing with tourism declining.

The retail sector was clamouring for sales tax rather than customs duty and even took out a series of adverts on the topic during the 1990s, called “Mr. Tax Man We Need Sales Tax”.

And then there was the idea of having the Island as a Duty Free zone, which would heavily impact on the way the Island raises taxes, mainly is through customs duty.