Government has warned civil servants to be on alert to prevent the contents of a tax study commissioned by the former United Bermuda Party (UBP) administration from leaking out.

Ministers have been anxious to ensure the report, which was finished in the summer of 1998 just before the last election but never released, is kept under wraps, said a well-placed source.

The UBP has consistently called for the report to be made public, and neither its contents nor the Progressive Labour Party's attitude to them have been disclosed.

The source said the PLP may be hoping to bury the report until after the election because publication would force the party to reveal its future plans on income tax.

In 1997, the UBP commissioned Harry Gutman of US law firm King and Spalding, and Eric Toder, an economist who worked with the US Treasury Department, to carry out the review and it was presented to the former government in the summer of 1998.

Income tax was not on the table, and the consultants were tasked with looking at Bermuda's existing taxes.

Finance Minister Eugene Cox said in January this year that he has asked the consultants to do more work on their report, but gave no indication of when he would release it or what the PLP's response would be.

Last Friday, Mr. Cox angrily dismissed a report in the Mid-Ocean News that Government was planning to bring in tax experts from the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, and they would look at the possibility of introducing income tax.

He said the PLP had said in election platform that it would not bring in income tax.

The Canadian authorities also told The Royal Gazette this week that they knew nothing about any of their officers going to Bermuda or planning to visit the Island to conduct a tax review.

But The Royal Gazette has learned that Cabinet has warned civil servants to be ultra-cautious to ensure the report commissioned by the UBP remains secret following the Mid-Ocean News story last week.

And earlier this week, Mr. Cox refused to comment when asked if he had undertaken any reviews or was planning to undertake any reviews of the Island's tax system.

Meanwhile, Government backbencher Dale Butler said yesterday there was little support for income tax in the PLP parliamentary group, but that the consultants' report should be released anyway.

"I feel that the tax report which was conducted years ago should have been released though. People should be given a chance to express their views so they can then be debated," he said.

"I think you will be hard pressed to find more than a couple of people in the PLP parliamentary group who are in favour of income tax but the fact is that, right now, the issue isn't even being discussed.

"We need to have a debate on all the different types of taxation. At the moment it seems there is no interest in income tax from the majority of Bermudians, some of whom are working four or five jobs."