The head of the Chamber of Commerce's International division has stood by his claims that he fully expects a reduction on the cap on payroll tax for his sector, but said the timing and extent of the move is in the hands of the Minister of Finance.

Mr. David Ezekiel, in a memo to all the members of the international division of the chamber, said he wanted to clarify his comments in connection with the reduction of the payroll tax.

But he said he stood by the comment that he saw no reason the cap should not be reduced.

He said: "I want to clarify the article, which appeared last week (January 4) in The Royal Gazette , which gave the impression that I have definite knowledge of a coming reduction in the salary cap of $250,000. While we have been working closely with Minister Cox and his staff, and we fully expect a reduction in the cap, the timing and the extent of any reductions are entirely in his hands.'' The article Mr. Ezekiel was referring to was one in which he revealed that payroll tax would be cut for international business, and taken back to levels before the 2000 budget was issued.

The last budget made changes to the way the tax was collected to even out the differences in tax collection for local and international companies and was in response to OECD concerns.

Instead of having the option of reporting an assumed figure for each employee, international companies would report actual salaries with a cap of $250,000.

According to Mr. Ezekiel, international companies have seen payroll taxes go up between 10 and 100 percent due to the changes.

But at the time of the budget Minister of Finance Eugene Cox said that the changes were meant to be revenue neutral.

Mr. Ezekiel added in the memo that he took exception to part of the article on January 4. He said: "The quotes attributed to me in the latter part of The Royal Gazette article were almost accurate except where it quotes me as saying: `But I can say there will be substantial reductions.' Ezekiel clarifies tax comments "What I in fact said was that the reductions would need to be substantial to make the change revenue neutral.

"Overall, I thought The Royal Gazette article, which came out of a call to me from Ms Mallon wishing to discuss the increase in payroll tax collections, was reasonably presented but I thought I should provide some clarification. I do, however, stand by my comment that I see no reason at all for the Minister not to make the necessary changes.'' Mr. Ezekiel declined to comment on a story in the paper in which United Bermuda Party MP, Trevor Moniz, attacked the proposed Government plans to reduce payroll taxes for international companies alone.

Mr. Moniz said any cuts should be made across the board for both local and international companies.