Opposition Leader Mark Golding says the finance minister’s heralding of “no new taxes” in his opening Budget Debate presentation last week rang hollow, noting that over fiscal years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023, the Government raked in an additional $208 billion in taxes or an overall 34 per cent increase over what was projected.

“The massive increase in the amount of taxes collected from the people over the past two years brings to light just how hollow is the refrain of ‘no new taxes’ that was bellowed in this House, to the predictable but fundamentally empty beating of tables,” Golding said.

Golding argued that the 34 per cent increase in taxes collected over the past two fiscal years is significantly greater than the accumulated inflation over that two-year period, which is projected to be 12.3 per cent.

“So the taxes a bite the people and a suck out dem blood,” Golding charged.

“It comes in a period where people’s living standards are being ravaged by the cost-of-living increases,” he said.

The Government fiscal policy paper points to $766 billion in taxes that will be collected from Jamaicans this fiscal year.

This represents $150 billion – or over 24 per cent – more taxes than the $616 billion the Government collected in financial year 2021-2022. It is also $95 billion more than the $671 billion in taxes originally budgeted to be collected this fiscal year.

Golding said that the Government is projecting to collect $824 billion in taxes in the upcoming 2023-24 fiscal year. That is an increase in tax collections of over 34 per cent over the two fiscal years from April 2022 to March 2024.

“And these massive increases in taxes weren’t limited to the last two years, but if we look at the last seven fiscal years, the tax take has increased from 24.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) to 28.2 per cent of GDP, placing Jamaica among the highest taxed countries in the world,” charged the opposition leader as he made his contribution to the Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

Giving a further breakdown of the taxes extracted from an individual since the Holness administration took the reins of Government in 2016, Golding said that the tax take from every Jamaican (15 years and older) has increased from $197,000 in 2015-16 to $365,000 in 2022-23, an increase of 85 per cent.

“This JLP (Jamaica Labour Party) administration is now extracting an additional $168,000 from the pockets of every Jamaican. Then they come with the samfie statement ‘bout no new taxes,” he added.

With the majority of taxes locally collected indirectly, Golding said that the poor and lower-income earners bear the brunt of it in paying the general consumption tax on purchases, which is projected to increase by 31 per cent, or $156 billion, in the new financial year.

Golding also took Finance and the Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke to task for apparently ignoring his suggestion to cap the ad valorem special consumption tax on gas this fiscal year. The opposition leader argued that this would have given motorists, transport operators and electricity consumers a break. He said the tax was based on an average projected world oil price of US$67.50 for the year.

He explained that the ad valorem gas tax is a percentage of the price of gas and other petroleum products, so the higher the oil price, the higher the amount of tax charged for each litre of gas.

“The mechanism I proposed was to cap the tax at the budgeted oil price of US$67.50, so that the people would not suffer any additional tax if and when the oil price went above US$67.50, and the fiscal targets for the year would not be affected,” said Golding.

He further added that he had drafted the order to cap the gas tax and delivered the document to the Ministry of Finance.

“I never received a reply, and never heard a word from the minister on the gas tax cap,” he said.

Golding said that the average oil price over this fiscal year has been above US$90.00, and the Government has benefited from billions of dollars of gas tax by refusing to cap the tax at the budgeted price of US$67.50.

The opposition leader said that the special consumption tax on imports for the first nine months of the year was J$7.8 billion or 18 per cent above budget. This, he said, was in line with his projection regarding the amounts consumers would have saved if the cap had been put in place.

“Well, since you didn’t listen last time and it has bitten everyone in their algorithms, please, for the sake of the Jamaican people, listen this time,” said Golding to Clarke.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com

BELFIELD, St Mary:

Opposition Leader Mark Golding on Sunday chastised the Government for what he deemed its failure to protect Jamaicans from the spiralling cost of living, including escalating food and gas prices.

He said that despite urging Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke to consider increasing the minimum wage to $12,000, which he claimed could have at least eased some of the burden on those hardest hit as they shop day to day for basic food items, not enough protection has been provided to the most vulnerable.

On April 1, the minimum wage was increased from $7,000 to $9,000 per 40-hour workweek and from $9,700 to $10,500 per week for private security guards.

“We tell them that they should get $12,000. We are committed to raise the minimum wage,” Golding, the president of the People’s National Party (PNP), said as he addressed the party’s Belfield divisional conference in St Mary.

“ … When you take a stock, $9,000 divided by 40 in a 40-hour working week is $225. A patty selling for $240. So one hour of work can’t even buy a patty with the minimum wage. Rice gone up, flour gone up, gas gone up, and everything gone up. The price of gas has gone up every week – sometimes $4.50, frequently. When it goes back down, it goes back down by a few cents,” he said.

Arguing that there was a need for more integrity in public life, Golding blasted the Government as being the most corrupt in the history of the country with “scandal after scandal after scandal”.

Turning to education, he lamented the failure of the ministry to satisfactorily address challenges faced by students, especially those at primary school, who are unable to read or write and were disenfranchised without data or devices to access classes during the virtual set-up schools were forced to adopt as a result of the pandemic.

“Our children are our future and to invest in them is to reap great rewards for national developments. What are we doing to the youth dem? The youth dem who leave school and the school system fail them and they don’t have any subject? And they don’t have a trade and them just out there on di corner looking for something to do with him life and get attract to the wrong path?” he asked.

“ … We have to provide those youths with an alternative path. We need a national programme for those youths. Give them remedial education, if they don’t have any basics. Train them in a skill, mentor them and put them towards work. We can’t build our country when so much youths are facing a dismal future and ending up on the wrong side of the law,” said the opposition leader.

Earlier, St Mary Central Member of Parliament Dr Morais Guy lauded the supporters for their large turnout and urged them to support the sitting Belfield Division councillor, Levan Freeman, in the next local government elections.

gareth.davis@gleanerjm.com

https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20220607/golding-minimum-wage-still-too-low

The People’s National Party (PNP) says it is willing to accept former Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) member Dr Ryan Simpson to the party but has made it clear that there is no vacancy in South East St Ann.

Simpson was selected by the JLP to contest that seat against the incumbent Lisa Hanna in the run-up to the 2020 general election before being pulled at the last minute as he would have breached the COVID protocols, having arrived from overseas shortly before.

He was replaced by Delroy Granston, who went on to lose to Lisa Hanna by 31 votes.

Simpson attended a South Trelawny constituency meeting at the Cedric Titus High School where he met PNP leader Mark Golding and signalled an interest in joining the party.

“Comrade Hanna is our candidate in South East St Ann and we’re not looking for a candidate, so it’s not that we’re fishing for a candidate. We have a candidate, we’re not seeking a candidate,” general secretary Dr Dayton Campbell told The Gleaner on Tuesday.

“Ryan’s engagement with the party does not have anything to do with candidacy in that area. I don’t know if he’s interested otherwise but certainly there is no vacancy in South East St Ann,” Campbell added.

On Tuesday, calls to Simpson’s cellular phone went straight to voicemail.

Campbell said no formal application for membership has reached the PNP executive but said he is interested in joining the party. Campbell indicated he would be welcomed.

“For people who want to make a meaningful contribution to the development of the country and want to join the party, they are welcome … once they come with clean hands and clean hearts,” Campbell said.

https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20220601/no-south-east-st-ann-vacancy-says-campbell

Leader of the Opposition and People’s National Party President Mark Golding says the Government should consider shifting its focus from its pace of debt reduction and focus on the well-being of Jamaicans.

Speaking at the People’s National Party’s Knockpatrick Divisional Conference at the May Day High School in Manchester on Sunday (May 29), Mr Golding said the Government needs to increase its spending for Jamaicans to benefit.

He said the agriculture sector is being severely affected by increasing prices, at a time when the country is facing food supply challenges.

MANDEVILLE, Manchester – Opposition Leader Mark Golding is calling on the Government to reduce its pace on debt payments and redirect some of the funds to alleviate the economic hardship being faced by Jamaicans.

“…This is a time when we need to just cool down the pace of this debt reduction and spend some money to cushion the crisis on the people,” he at the People’s National Party’s Knockpatrick Divisional Conference at May Day High School in Manchester on Sunday.

“We said to them, in the budget debate, ‘Take two per cent of GDP of expenditure in addition to what you came with in the budget and use that to cushion the crisis, that’s $40 billion’,” he added.

Golding said the social welfare of Jamaicans, including those on the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), needed more funding.

“We see it coming and the people need the help. The pensioners need the help. NIS pensioners need a top-up, poor relief, PATH beneficiaries and most of all the farmers, because they can’t afford this fertiliser at $15,000,” he said.

He added that farmers are facing tough times brought on by high expenditure.

“When they don’t buy the fertiliser, because they can’t afford it, the yields gwine fall, production gwine fall, at a time when the world can’t supply us with the food we need and the price is going to go up and the people are going to suffer and Jamaica is going to be in serious problems,” he said.

Golding also criticised Prime Minister Andrew Holness for not addressing the Jamaica Education Commission report compiled by Professor Orlando Patterson.

“I have to wonder about the prime minister, is like he is living in a world of his own. I don’t hear him saying anything about the crucial problems facing the country. I don’t hear him saying anything about the crisis in education, which the Patterson report has highlighted and made recommendations,” said Golding.

“We don’t hear anything about that. We don’t debate that in Parliament, but we know that for Jamaica to move forward we have to invest in our children. We have to invest in the early childhood education system. We have to invest in the primary school system,” he added.

“We cannot have a situation where close to half of the primary school students are not achieving the basics in maths, English and critical thinking. How are we going to achieve our 2030 goals if we don’t invest and set the system right fi de pickney dem in the early stages, so that by the time they reach secondary school they are well on their way to become productive citizens?” he asked.

Seizing on national foment that has sparked days of strikes and a rash of rural road protests, People’s National Party (PNP) President Mark Golding amassed scores of supporters on the doorstep of the finance minister’s headquarters to press for a rollback of the petrol tax.

Delivering a draft ministerial order to Financial Secretary Darlene Morrison that called for a cap on the ad valorem special consumption tax on fuel, Golding wants the limit to be placed at US$67.50 per barrel.

Arguing that Jamaicans were victims of a worsening cost-of-living crisis, Golding warned that the country was on the brink and that there was a sense of drift in political leadership.

Major factor in inflation

With double-digit inflation causing the prices of food and other commodities to spiral, the Opposition insists that the Holness administration should intervene to cushion Jamaicans.

“We feel the gas price is a major factor in this overall inflation. And as you know, there are tremendous taxes included in fuel,” the opposition leader said.

Gasolene retailers have been urging the Government to reconsider the tax component of ex-refinery fuel.

“Our concern is that even corporate tax is lower than 45 per cent, and we are asking the ordinary man in the street to bear a tax of 45 per cent on gasolene,” Dianne Parram, president of the Jamaica Gasolene Retailers Association, told The Gleaner in February.

Several opposition members of parliament participated in Monday’s protest, with demonstrators gathering at National Heroes Park. Among them were Phillip Paulwell, Julian Robinson, Angela Brown Burke, and Anthony Hylton.

Paulwell has since 2021 championed a rethink of the fuel tax regime but Finance Minister Nigel Clarke has rejected it as wholescale and unreasonable, arguing that it would effectively subsidise the wealthy.

In his Budget Debate presentation in March, Clarke announced a $2-billion provisional package for taxi operators and children on state welfare.

However, Golding said that capping the ad valorem tax at US$67.50 would not compromise the fundamentals of the Budget.

“If this is implemented, it would go some way towards the Government showing that they care about the plight of the people,” Golding said.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com

https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20220517/pnp-revs-protest-gas-tax-cap

BySantana Salmon

Leader of Jamaica’s opposition People’s National Party (PNP), Mark Golding on Monday led a march at the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service over the soaring costs of fuel on the island.

He was accompanied by party members and supporters who were also protesting against the general high cost of living in Jamaica.

In his budget presentation earlier this year, Golding had drafted a proposal that would see a cut in gas tax. His approach sees the Government imposing a cap on the ad valorem special consumption tax on petroleum products where the oil price of Jamaica’s purchases exceeds US$67.50 per barrel.

Golding said with gas prices rising weekly, his proposal would ease the burden on motorists. But according to the PNP leader, Finance Minister Dr. Nigel Clarke has not yet moved to implement the measure.

In his letter to Dr. Clarke, Golding said the “inflation crisis is ravaging people’s lives in Jamaica”.

He said adopting his proposal would lead to a “meaningful break to Jamaican consumers, given the impact of gas prices on so many aspects of our lives.

Among the other party members who accompanied Golding at the march were Phillip Paulwell, Julian Robinson, Dr Angela Brown-Burke, and Dr. Dayton Campbell.

“Harder Times Ahead” Warns PNP

Mark Golding has also urged all Jamaicans to brace for harder times ahead of rising inflation.

“This is not the year to be so tight with the thing. This is a year when sufferation is going to be bitter on the people. Government has an obligation, a duty to cushion the crises for the people,” said Golding at a PNP divisional conference in Portland on Sunday.

Golding said it is not beyond the Andrew Holness government to assist Jamaicans, but instead the present administration does not listen.

“And I can tell you what you see happening now with the industrial unrest is partly because of those things, because the pressure is on public sector workers. And the process to bring in this reclassification of their employment arrangements and their salary is being done in a way that don’t build no confidence. It is being done in a way that has eroded trust in the process and in the government.”

Golding said trade unions representing the public sector workers have been complaining that they have not been getting the information in a timely basis, and they are not being brought to the table to negotiate any of those details around the package.

“And here we have last week strike; water commission strike, housing trust strike, air traffic controllers strike, all in one week. And who next? So it is a bitter time. The people are going to be looking for an alternative to this government,” he added.

Over the last week, the Jamaican government has come under pressure from several groups of public sector workers who have walked off the job or threatened to strike over salary negotiations.