Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My name is Luisa Rizzo, and I am the director general of the GST/HST rulings directorate in the legislative policy and regulatory affairs branch at the Canada Revenue Agency.
I want to thank you for inviting me to attend your meeting.
To set a helpful context for the discussions today, I would like to briefly describe the role of the Canada Revenue Agency in the administration of the Excise Tax Act relative to that of other federal organizations.
As you are aware, the Department of Finance is responsible for developing and evaluating federal tax policy and the legislation through which policy becomes law.
As administrator, the Canada Revenue Agency is responsible for functions that implement these laws, including providing information to the public and stakeholders, establishing processes through which individuals and businesses may meet their tax obligations and receive benefits and, of course, carrying out our compliance activities to help ensure that everyone respects the law as it was intended by Parliament. The role of the Canada Revenue Agency is to interpret the Excise Tax Act as it is worded. I can thus speak about the application of legislation.
Additionally, please note that the CRA has no role in financial sector policy and no role in credit card regulations.
Chair, this concludes my opening remarks.
Thank you.