Any plans by the Government to increase its revenue by the addition of taxes to gas, while adding GCT to electricity and water is ill-advised and would be the biggest blunder that this administration could ever make.

The Government should instead look to businesses and professionals who simply refuse to pay their fair share of taxes, by performing all kinds of gymnastics, when it comes on to paying over their taxes.

The compliance rate for income tax among the self-employed professionals in this country is so low, it is embarrassing. It is full time that the Government sets up a revenue collection agency similar to the IRS in the United States, which would be mandated to make sure these individuals and companies are indeed paying what is owed to this country.

Income-generating capacity

It would, among other things, be responsible to complete audit on companies and individuals who have filed tax returns which are not in keeping with their income-generating capacity.

Those accountants and other financial experts who are found to be complicit in devising strategies for tax evasion for the persons and companies, should also be brought to book, and have their licences suspended for no less than five years, to send a strong message

The Jamaican equivalent of the IRS must come down with a giant hammer on those who refuse to pay their fair share of taxes, by using so-called tax avoidance strategies, and should be fined heavily and given prison terms for robbing the national treasury.

I am, etc.,

WINSTON WILLIAMS

patex_us2000@yahoo.com

Basseterre

St Kitts