THE EDITOR, Madam:
I AM a small businessman operating in a country I love but which maintains a harsh, unyielding, cold environment against me, an environment which constantly sends a steady stream of signals which shout out that I am really foolhardy to persist in business.
SIGNAL 1: Minister Davies, positions the Ministry of Finance as above the law and passes an edict that any company that has a tax dispute with the government will face a new range of administrative punishments. Not from a Court of Justice, not founded on a broadly stated and clearly articulated government policy, but from a personal edict of the Minister.
There is no indication that this punishment will have a sunset, but all indications are that it will persist in perpetuity. If I make a mistake in my tax filing, of course there must be a penalty. If I am convicted for breaking a tax statute, of course the law must take its course. I serve the penalty and I move on.
But what is this message the Minister is sending? The clear signal to me is, "Open warfare on small business people, with whimsical rules of engagement"
SIGNAL 2: The second signal is that "the large and the foreign is both the better and the preferred of the species". Air Jamaica flouts the revenue law, English Sport flouts the tax laws, yet both are rewarded with enjoying superior incentives and benefits from my government.
SIGNAL 3: This is really a non-signal defined by its pregnant silence; i.e. "No encouragement to burn the midnight oil to get new enterprises or wealth creation going". There is no clearly stated strategy, incentives or campaign for driving new business start-up. Somebody still doesn't get it that the vibrancy and growth of an economy comes from how loud the new growth area is humming. The lack of attention in this area is mind-boggling and begs for some serious, sustained focus.
We need strong, clear, unambiguous signals that the government wants a flourishing of thousands of new start-ups, soaking up the stay-at-home-too-longs and stimulating the bright, creative, minds of our youth, that the government is moving full speed ahead to set the framework for this to happen and that it is co-partnering with, rather than fighting against, business, academia and the working class to make it happen.
I am etc.,
HAROLD CLARKE
E-mail: haroldclarkejr@hotmail.com
August Town
