Tax inflows four per cent ahead of target - Clarke

Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke says tax revenues are ahead of budget by approximately four per cent for the first four months of the 2018/19 financial year.

Speaking at the Tax Audit and Revenue Administration (TARA) Post Graduate Diploma Programme graduation ceremony at the Knutsford Court Hotel on Friday, Clarke heralded the positive tax inflows as evidence that investments in the transformation of Jamaica’s tax administrative services were bearing fruit, even as the economic fundamentals move in the right direction.

The finance minister noted, “There is a sense that the practice of increasing taxes each year could mask or hide inefficiencies. The fact that there were no new taxes this year, and for the first four months of the year, tax revenues are four per cent ahead of budget, is very, very significant. And ladies and gentlemen, who work within the Tax Administrative System, have everything to be proud of.”

Clarke further highlighted that as the Government of Jamaica continues to transform the public sector, government employees have a crucial role to play in embodying the ideals of the preferred Jamaican state.

“In that moment when you are interacting with members of the Jamaican public, you are the embodiment and personification of the Jamaican state... It is crucial that you internalise, you become, and you project the deepest ideals of Jamaica in your interaction. In the way in which you relate to members of the public, you become who you want Jamaica to be. You are the embodiment of a wise Jamaica, of an efficient Jamaica, of a compassionate Jamaica, and of a just Jamaica” the minister urged graduates.  

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