The Jamaica government says it will introduce no new taxes when it presents the national budget to Parliament next month.
Finance and Public Service Minister, Audley Shaw, said revenue inflows have been doing “fairly well” this year, and that the out-turn at the end of December 2017 was J$13 billion ahead of projections.
“Happily, with this trajectory, it is not the government’s plan to introduce a new tax package in the new Budget that is coming,” Shaw told the Mayberry Investments Limited’s monthly Investor Forum.
Focus on non-tax initiatives
He said the government will, however, focus on implementing non-tax initiatives to ensure that importers in particular “pay their fair share at the wharves.”
Shaw, who is expected to present his budget on either February 8 or 9th, said to this end, the Jamaica Customs Agency has been instructed to take the necessary steps to acquire the requisite modern state-of-the-art X-ray equipment to enable them to scan all incoming containers.
100 percent scanning
“We are going to (scan) all barrels and containers 100 per cent…. Everything coming in will be scanned, because all I want is a fair system where all persons pay their duties,” he added.
Meanwhile, Shaw said the government plans to lobby the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to further reduce the Primary Surplus Balance.
The primary surplus is the minimum set aside in the Budget for debt payments. This was a stipulation under the previous IMF Extended Fund Facility, and remains under the successor Precautionary Standby Arrangement.
“We had gotten a relaxation… from 7.5 per cent, which is where it (initially) was, down to seven per cent, and when the time is appropriate, we will seek to get it further down to 6.5 per cent and then six per cent. Of course, the more relaxation you have of the Primary Surplus is the more money you will have for capital expenditure,” Shaw said.
e also advised that Jamaica’s debt is expected to further decline to 107.1 per cent of gross domestic product by the end of the 2017/18 fiscal year on March 31.
