By Vernon Daley, Parliamentary Reporter
IT'S STRANGE how we often have good ideas in Jamaica but do very badly in implementing them. The evidence of this is not hard to find. Take the House Committee on Taxation Measures, as an example. The idea of a committee that examines taxes before they are implemented is a very sound one.
It was first suggested after the infamous 1999 Gas Tax riots, as a way of making Government more responsive to the people. It has taken Government four years to introduce the committee and in doing so it has made quite a hash of the process.
Instead of the committee being set up to review the taxes before they were implemented, it was set up to examine the taxes after they had taken effect. This was not the intention of the Peter Moses-led committee, which made the recommendation, following the Gas Tax riots.
Finance and Planning Minister, Dr. Omar Davies, announced a controversial tax plan in April and the committee had its first sitting in May. It's now August, the House is on the summer break and that committee has not yet submitted its report! Even though the committee had its last formal meeting in July it's likely that it might have to meet again informally to hammer out some issues.
EXTENSION
The committee, which was initially given 60 days to complete its deliberations, has already asked for a 30-day extension. That extension will run out before the House resumes in September but one hopes that by then the committee's final report will be ready.
The length of time it has taken for the committee to complete its deliberations and submit its findings has done nothing to inspire confidence in how the country's financial affairs are being conducted.
To make matters worse, the Finance Minister seemed to have side-stepped the committee in arriving at compromises with various sectoral interests on the taxes he has levied. For example, there is talk that he has decided to implement the 15 per cent General Consumption Tax (GCT) on lottery winnings rather than purchases. Recently, the Minister also backtracked on plans to apply GCT on recreational books, after representatives of the publishing industry cried out that the measure was a tax on literacy.
All this was done outside the ambit of the committee, leaving us with the obvious question as to what purpose the committee really serves. Is the committee really a sham an attempt by Dr. Davies and the Government to give the impression that they believe in consultation? We'll have to wait and see what happens when the House resumes.
AASSISTANTS
The recent controversy flowing from statements made by Sharon Hay-Webster and Ernie Smith in the House, highlight a great deficiency in our legislature. I'm talking about the need for parliamentarians to have research assistants to help them prepare for debates.
Ministers and State Ministers have the advantage of staff, which they can ask for assistance to pull information together, but Government backbenchers and Opposition members have no such luck. They either have to do their own research (which is very time consuming) or just say whatever they feel. I'm afraid the latter is the preferred option.
If Mrs. Hay-Webster and Mr. Smith had research assistants to help them prepare for the recent debate, quite likely they wouldn't have come out with outrageous ideas such as virginity tests and sterilisation as methods of population control.
Send comments to: vernon.daley@gleanerjm.com.
