Gassan Azan Jr (right), chairman and CEO of MegaMart Wholesale Club, has the ear of Prime Minister Bruce Golding in Montego Bay on Saturday. - Contributed

WESTERN BUREAU:

Retail mogul Gassan Azan Jr has recommended that the Government concentrate on incentivising production and removing bureaucratic obstacles, instead of burdening compliant taxpayers.

Azan, who is the chairman and chief executive officer of Mega-Mart Wholesale Club, said on the weekend that he was convinced Jamaica could not tax its way out of its economic woes.

"If we impose additional taxes without first ensuring higher levels of compliance, we will only continue to penalise the 45 per cent who are compliant," the MegaMart boss said, while speaking during the company's 10th-anniversary ceremony at its Catherine Hall superstore in Montego Bay, St James, on Saturday.

"I believe that to bring them into compliance will require not only penalties, but an entirely new paradigm. Taxation must be made simpler and easier to pay which, in this new paradigm, should encourage Jamaicans to consider it their civic duty."

The ceremony, which saw representatives from a wide cross section of the business sector, also involved the rededication of MegaMart's three superstores, located in MoBay; Portmore, St Catherine; and Kingston.

Azan added that lower interest rates alone could not stimulate investment, as there was need for a more "business-friendly environ-ment, which only a business-friendly bureaucracy can create".

Everybody has a role

Guest speaker Prime Minister Bruce Golding said he was mindful of the challenges but emphasised that the country could not continue to borrow its way out of debt.

Likening the situation to crafting a family budget, Golding said each Jamaican has to play his/her part in easing the debt burden.

"I don't want to leave any ambiguity in the minds of people that something that we have never done, perhaps for the past 20, 30 years; something that perhaps we have never been prepared to do, we are that point in our lives now when we are going to have to start paying our way," he stated.

"We are going to have to decide that we are going to so design the menu to afford what goes in that pot and what comes out on that plate."

nagra.plunkett@gleanerjm.com