The Editor, Sir:

I was astonished to read, on the front page of today's Gleaner (November 15), from the financial secretary, Colin Bullock [and who should know better] that the rate of tax compliance was only 30 per cent and that the rate of corporate compliance was a mere 10 per cent.

How on earth can such a situation have arisen? A number of answers spring to mind, but the most charitable and the one I like best is the complacent approach that if the money rolling in is insufficient, just raise the tax rates.

Thus, the poor old PAYE tax payer bears the brunt. But that has probably gone as far as it can go.

In the same article, it states that Finance Minister Audley Shaw is initiating action, starting with the Customs Department.

But it strikes me that spending $100 million or so on beefing up tax collection all round, and the establishment of a separate revenue court with draconian powers could probably bring in at least double the current revenue and give a return on investment of several hundred per cent.

I am. etc.,

W.I. POWELL

Mandeville