Phyllis Thomas, News EditorThe Main News last week was good news in the sense that the street light cess was withdrawn and that the Government is instead embarking on a programme to encourage property owners' compliance in paying their property taxes.
The money to pay for street lights and to provide an additional 27,000 over the next three years will come from property taxes, Prime Minister P. J. Patterson announced.
The earnings from property tax for this financial year is $600 million and the projection for the next year is $4.7 billion therefore enforcing compliance cannot be mere mouthings. It has to be aggressive.
Mr. Patterson announced various levels of waiver of penalties and interest to encourage property owners to pay taxes still outstanding.
What is the Government doing to ensure continued compliance? Why can't it enforce the 1972 Property Tax Act which provides for the application of interest of 15 per cent and penalty of 10 per cent for non-compliance?
What freaks me out every time is our consistent failure to enforce laws - from the Litter Act to the various tax collection laws.
The stench of stale urine in sections of the city is so repulsive that it rips through any barrier to the olfactory senses which inflamed sinuses may put up.
Yet, when was the last time that persons have been hauled before the court under the Litter Law for urinating on the streets? We see people fling garbage through the windows of their posh cars daily. If they too are taken to court that's a state secret.
Last April and May, more than 180 persons with tax arrears totalling $358.2 million were taken before the Tax Courts in Kingston and Montego Bay. The taxes comprised General Consumption Tax (GCT), Income Tax and statutory deductions. How often do we see this happening?
Why go to Parliament and laboriously pursue the passage of these pieces of legislation if all that is going to happen is that they accumulate volumes of dust in some departments and agencies.
When the law is broken we want to see action - across the board - from the poor to the so-called "Big Man." But we allow the poor to steal light and water and the "Big Man" to circumvent the law when all we need is the will to enforce existing criminal and civil laws to straighten the crooked.
The song says "Action, not a bag a mouth..." and that has to be our approach to governance. Simple.
And getting back to the withdrawn cess, the events leading to the withdrawal of the cess should be a lesson to the Government on the importance of consultation with the people who will be affected by its actions. This is imperative for any successful launch and implementation of programmes whether they be developmental programmes or taxation.
Introducing any new taxation is as easy as teeth extraction even when people recognise the necessity for those taxes. Therefore the need for consultation assumes even greater importance.
But it is obvious that none of this happened or the flaws in the cess would have surfaced before they became eggs on the face of the Government and stress to the Jamaican people.
The Government has to realise that arrogance loses every time. Arrogance is like a horse that is ridden and whipped mercilessly but for which the winning post remains elusive. That should tell us that it's time to dismount.
A nagging question in the back of my mind is the amount of money which the Government must have spent on the technical committee which was named to seek ways to implement the cess. Between the time that the team was set up and the time the cess was called off it must have done some work. So how much more of taxpayers' money was wasted on this monument to Government stupidity?
Of interest is a radio report on Friday which quoted Anthony Chang, Chamber of Commerce (CofC) president, as saying that the CofC would help gather suggestions for effective collection of property taxes. This is exemplary and we trust that the Government will listen when they make their submission.
