3 Budget Questions the Opposition Wants Answered!

If the government paid you J$20,000 cash, would that be enough to get you to pay your taxes?

The national budget debates are now in full swing!  And Opposition Spokesman on Finance, Julian Robinson, is poking holes in Finance Minister Nigel Clarke’s presentation.

One of those holes is in the Reverse Tax Credit.

This is where the government is giving J$20,000 cash to all taxpayers who earn less than J$3 million a year, and whose taxes are paid up.

Julian said he supports the idea, but he doesn’t think it’s gonna work because most people pay more than J$20,000 in taxes.

So for someone who isn’t paying taxes, that one-off payment probably won’t sway them into filing and paying.

Another point for Julian was about how the government plans to pay for the budget.

Remember Nigel said they’re getting $45 billion from the sale of receivables.

But Julian was like, tell us more…

Because this part was a bit vague, and as they say, the devil is in the details.

Which receivables exactly will the government sell?  And who’s buying? Are they getting a one-off payment, or will it flow continuously throughout the year?

What are the terms of the sale?  What cut does the buyer get?  Questions… questions.

Now the third point from Julian that I’ll get into today, is about the impact of removing GCT from imported raw foods.

As I mentioned in my previous video, the whole point of taxing imported raw foods was to protect local farmers who can’t compete with cheap imports.

Nigel said we HAD to remove the tax or be blacklisted by the World Trade Organisation, which would make it difficult for us to trade with other countries.

But Julian said ok fine, well what’s your plan to help farmers then?

Good question.

Nigel did say that there are other ways to protect local farmers.  He also mentioned that GCT isn’t the only tax on imported foods.  There are also hefty customs duties, which will remain.

But the bigger issue is, how do we get local farmers to be more competitive in the first place?  So that they don’t NEED a tax on imports to compete on price.  

What incentives and assistance will you give our farmers so they can produce better quality and still have good prices?

These are some of the questions we expect Nigel to answer in his closing presentation.

I also have another video coming up from Julian, about JUTC, the government-run buses.

And of course, we’ll be covering the rest of the budget presentations, including Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Opposition Leader Mark Golding next week.