At court today, we saw the Department's prosecutor carrying around a file which says "committal warrants. " Now, if you don't know, a committal warrant is the very last step in enforcement: it means that the minute it is served it on you, you should be committed to jail.

And that's almost what happened to the owner of Neon Plastics, Cathy Barroti - who - according to reports from the Sales Tax Prosecutor - was already on the prison bus - when she managed to work out a last ditch arrangement to pay $2,500 dollars out of the $41,000 that her business owes.

And there are also committal warrants for many other well-known persons including Loretta Palacio whose businesses Total Business Solutions and Worldcom owe a combined thirty-plus thousand dollars. According to the sales Tax Prosecutor Palacio is out of the country and will be served with the warrant at the airport when she returns.

Similarly, this afternoon, the Sales Tax department intended to serve a committal warrant on Theresa Parkey of the Hugh Parkey foundation which owes $108,000 thousand dollars in arrears.

And this morning, well known PUP political activist Mark Usher was served with his warrant for Modern Cleaning Company - and only managed to avert a trip to jail by explaining an extenuating circumstance: his son Maurice Usher had just been killed in a traffic accident.

In all cases, the Sales Tax Department says numerous warnings were sent in writing to business owners