to Government in annual fees yesterday after the Finance Minister tabled a controversial new tax amendment in the House of Assembly.

Lawyers, accountants, architects and engineers were among those who were hardest hit.

Medical practitioners led the pack.

The amendment -- tabled by the Hon. David Saul as the 1995 Miscellaneous Taxes Amendment Act -- was first proposed by the Minister as part of last month's Budget.

Under it, registered professionals will be obligated to pay an annual license fee that ranges from $50 to $2,500 a year.

Actual amounts by profession were not revealed until yesterday.

If passed, the tax will go into effect on April 1.

The professionals that were hardest hit by the amendment were the Island's medical practitioners, who will be charged the top rate of $2,500 a year.

In second place on the licence fee ladder are lawyers, dentists, architects and engineers.

Together with chartered accountants and certified public accountants, they will be required to pay fees of $2,000 a year.

On the other hand, certified general accountants will only be obliged to pay $1,000 a year.

They join optometrists, opticians and pharmacists in this range of the tax scale.

The lowest fee -- $50 a year -- is to be paid by the members of ten local professions, including dental hygienists, dental technicians, chiropodists, dietitians and medical laboratory technicians.

Also in the $50 range are occupational therapists, physiotherapists, radiographers, speech therapists and nurses.

Real estate agents and salespeople will be required to pay a fee of $500 a year under a specially established section of the Act.

The amendment -- an adjustment of the original Miscellaneous Taxes Act of 1976 -- has been roundly criticised by many of the Island's professional organisations since it was proposed on February 15.

The Institute of Bermuda Architects, for example, has demanded that the Government re-evaluate a system of operation on the Island in which unregistered architectural services are allowed to function without any restrictions and registered architects will now be taxed.

Said IBA president Mr. Stanley Kennedy: "How do you tax someone for a protected privilege when there is no protection in place?'' Mr. Tony Joaquin, vice-president of the Bermuda Institute of Chartered Accountants, was also worried that the new fees might discourage local professionals from registering themselves as such and joining associations.

He added that the organisation had scheduled a meeting to discuss the new amendment.

"From the standpoint of the profession, we are not surprised that the fees were introduced,'' Mr. Joaquin told The Royal Gazette .

"But we didn't expect the fees to have an effect at the association level.

Membership is currently based on a voluntary basis and the fees could have an impact on the number of new and current members.'' On Budget Day, the Finance Minister attempted to justify the tax by saying that "professional persons who are afforded the special legislated protection of registration in order to practise their profession are in a very privileged position.'' He added that "the associations of professional persons shall pay an annual fee to Government in respect of each registered professional in their group.'' The fees are expected to raise some $1 million for Government.