LETTER OF THE DAY - Tax consumption, not property

THE EDITOR, Sir:

On Friday, March 15, 2013, the GCT I paid on my grocery shopping was $814.97 at the current rate of 16.5 per cent.

I have calculated that if the rate of GCT was 20 per cent, I would have paid $987.60, a cash increase of $172.63. Now children of Gordon House, if we multiply $172.63 by 52, we get a grand total of $8,976.76, which, as any fool can see, is nearly nine times the property tax of $1,000 I paid last year.

Despite the kindergarten mathematics of the Ministry of Finance and its many expensive advisers, one can see that if we ditched the property tax and increased GCT to 20 per cent, my $8,976.76 can be divided with, say, $3,000 to the Programme for Advancement Through Health and Education, $2,000 to the fire service, $2,000 to roads, $1,000 to garbage collection, with the remainder of $976.76 for street lighting

I have not mentioned the GCT paid on my clothes, fuel, insurance, telephone, entertainment, you name it! If you want to go out and buy top-of-the-line vehicles at 20 per cent GCT, thus providing jobs for foreigners, that's your business, I have no sympathy for you.

However, think on this: The world took notice when we sent a man to Beijing who broke the 100 metres record, so what will they think when we abolish this unfair tax?

INCREASING COMPLIANCE

We could also make improvements by closing the positions of people who stand behind cash registers in tax offices along with supporting staff. I am not saying dismiss them; retrain them to be GCT inspectors and send them out in the field to make sure that the tax collected is paid over to the Government.

While we are making the changes, why not join the 21st century and make it possible to pay vehicle-licence fees at the nearest bank, which will stop the loss of production time standing in line at one of the few tax offices miles away (in my case, 50 miles round trip) - a whole day lost.

I would like to hear one good reason why we can't do this.

PHIL FOSTER

croc@cwjamaica.com

St Elizabeth