Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2022)

PART 5
MISCELLANEOUS

26.   Duty to collect certain debts

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    (1)   Except with the permission of the Director of Finance and Planning, no person resident in Saint Lucia who has a right (whether present or future and whether vested or contingent) to receive any specified currency, or to receive from a person resident outside the scheduled territories a payment in sterling, shall do, or refrain from doing, any act with intent to secure or shall do any act which involves, is in association with or is preparatory to any transaction securing—

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      (a)     that the receipt by him or her of the whole or part of that currency or, as the case may be, of that payment in sterling, is delayed; or

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      (b)     that the currency or payment ceases, in whole or in part, to be receivable by him or her.

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    However, this subsection shall not—

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      (i)     unless the Director of Finance and Planning otherwise directs, impose on any person any obligation, in relation to any debt arising in the carrying on of any trade or business, to procure the payment thereof at an earlier time than is customary in the course of that trade or business, or

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      (ii)     unless the Director of Finance and Planning otherwise directs, prohibit any transfer to a person resident in Saint Lucia and not elsewhere of any right to receive any specified currency or payment in sterling.

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    (2)   Where a person has contravened the provisions of subsection (1) in relation to any specified currency or payment in sterling, the Director of Finance and Planning may give to him or her or to any other person who appears to the Director of Finance and Planning to be in a position to give effect thereto (being a person in or resident in Saint Lucia) such directions as appear to the Director of Finance and Planning to be expedient for the purpose of obtaining or expediting the receipt of the currency or payment in question, and, without prejudice to the generality of the preceding provisions of this subsection, may direct that there shall be assigned to the Director of Finance and Planning or to such person as may be specified in the directions, the right to receive the currency or payment or enforce any security for the receipt thereof.