While Finance Minister Audley Shaw's offer of yet another tax amnesty is certainly dramatic, we cannot help but feel more than a little jaded about the string of efforts to have tax dodgers pay up voluntarily.

With public trepidation ahead of Shaw's Thursday afternoon Budget presentation running high, he offered an olive branch to both the income-tax dodger and (to a lesser extent) the taxpayer. He announced what could be considered the ultimate tax-amnesty deal: make a declaration for the last financial year and no questions would be asked about any previous amounts.

Shifting the blame

For the errant taxpayer, it simply cannot possibly get any better. Of course, the cynics among us will posit that by mentioning the amnesty, Shaw was obliquely and strategically sliding some of the blame for the tax increases he announced yesterday on to the unnamed tax dodger.

Naturally, along with the blame would go some wrath which could only be expressed verbally at an unknown, unidentifiable target.

We must question, though, the effectiveness of this 'final offer' to tax dodgers, coming after last year's extended reprieve which raised some $8 billion.

Under that arrangement, interest charges and late fees were waived, starting at 100 per cent in the first instance and reduced in following months. In fact, the 100 per cent waiver was extended, as was the closure of the window of amnesty opportunity.

It was promised then, as it has been again, that tax dodgers would be actively and vigorously pursued, but the finance minister's announcement of yet another reprieve would indicate that neither pursuit nor persuasion has been effective (or, we suspect, effected) on any large scale.

So, the estimated 200,000-plus tax dodgers who ignored last year's forgiveness would not have been shaken by a previous example of prosecution.

What we find amazing is that many of these persons are hardly making any effort to hide. For example, none of the 400 doctors from 500 in a recent sample who are not paying income tax can practise without being licensed.

And since they must have offices (with stated opening hours), they are hardly itinerant traders, operating from a briefcase and a cellphone.

Hardly unknown

The same goes for many other self-employed persons who are leaving their income-tax responsibility up to those who comply or are in a PAYE situation. They have fixed addresses and they are often part of professional organisations which have their contact details. Entertainers may be harder to track down, but the nature of their occupation makes it compulsory that they attend concerts - events which are highly publicised.

So, we can easily forgive the cynic who looks at the latest official pardon with a jaded eye. He has seen it all before and is more than a little tired of seeing doubles - and deficits that a serious programme to haul in tax dodgers would go a far way towards plugging.

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