By Cliff Williams, ContributorIN LAST week's column I re-examined the contents of the document submitted to government that took the form of an action plan prepared by the Jamaica Racehorse Owners Association (JROA) and as promised I will now turn my attention to the advice offered by the Caymanas Track Ltd.(CTL) Board of Directors to the political administration.
The reason for this exercise of revisiting both sets of proposals is that I am getting the distinct impression that there is a growing number of persons who are simply not aware of the details or have quite forgotten what the documents contain and the likely impact on the racing industry if the recommendations therein are adopted and subsequently implemented.
Further, against the background of this weekend's Annual General Meeting where there is the likelihood of militancy amongst the membership of the JROA over what is deemed to be a lack of an appropriate response by government to their submission, it is important to keep this issue on the front burner. There is also a rumour that there is likely to be a protest over the appointment of Rose Campbell's replacement as CEO at CTL, it would seem that there is going to be interesting times ahead.
Before looking at the CTL Board's proposals perhaps it may be useful to just summarise what the JROA presented and has been unable to evoke a response from the government to date. Incidentally there are notable similarities in both submissions.
Essentially all the owners have asked in their action plan is for the promoting company to be put in a position where it operates on a basis of sustained viability thus leading to full modernization of the physical facility and a purse structure that is attractive enough to bring new investors in ever increasing numbers.
Now on to the CTL Board's rather interesting proposals. The opening recommendation is that for the next five years government waives the bets winning tax on CTL but retains in full the tax paid by bookmakers. Strangely, part of the rationale for this position is that the CTL Directors is of the view that the bookmakers are not reporting their sales faithfully. Naturally the principal players in the bookmaking industry have denied this with some vehemence.
The second recommendation is that the government reduces its 0.7% revenue take of which CTL gross sales to 0.3%. There has been a study carried out by the firm Deloitte & Touche which demonstrated conclusively that within three years after implementation of this regime revenue collection would increase significantly.
Recommendation number three from the CTL Directors speaks to the desirability of the government's contribution to purses from the Levy Scheme be paid by the Collector of Taxes directly to the promoting company. Further, where the sum committed is not paid the promoters should be allowed to set off the shortfall against its tax liability and pay over the balance to the Collector of Taxes.
In my view, this would be quite extraordinary and is unlikely to find favour with the Finance Ministry given the consistent shortfall in revenue projections. Still if this proposal was implemented it would ease the promoting company's cash flow problems and even enhance profitability in the short and medium term.
Finally, proposal number four is for the establishment of a joint venture operation between the current owners, the Government of Jamaica, and private sector interests. Interestingly, the proposed formula here is for the government to invest the land and existing structures as well as equipment whilst new capital investment and management would be the responsibility of the private sector players.
Truth be told, between the JROA action plan and the CTL Director's recommendation for the financial viability if the promoting company the government has in its possession a workable blueprint for the development of the local racing industry going forward.
Surely enough time has elapsed since the submission of these documents for some indication to be given if any of the proposals are likely to be adopted. Frankly, it is beginning to look like a long time ago back to the end of November 2002 when the JROA came up with their proposals and the December 10, 2002 recommendation of the CTL Directors.
Here is little bit of racing history for those who may not be aware. This weekend marks the 29th occasion since the opening Classic was divided into the fillies only 1000 Guineas and the colts and geldings only 2000 Guineas and run over a mile or 1600 metres.
Prior to 1975 the race was renewed traditionally on Easter Mondays with both sexes contesting the same race over a distance of nine furlongs or 1800 metres. In this year's contests no more than two horses in each category may dominate as we are dealing with a crop of three-year-olds without too much depth of talent.
