Devon Dick
DEEJAY FONTON MOJA sings that Jamaica needs to Do Something For The Poor. In saying that, he is echoing the sentiment of the Psalmist who said, 'Blessed is he that considers the poor' (41:1).
The Most Honourable P.J. Patterson in his response to the birthday salute at a worship service held at the Boulevard Baptist Church on the occasion of his 70th birthday said that he tries to live by the precepts of the Bible and he specially mentioned the elderly, vulnerable, children and the poor.
Last week, Gleaner's Man of the Year, Kingsley Thomas, managing director of National Development Bank, chided me once again for not highlighting, enough, in my columns, the plight of the poor.
The Matalon Committee, which made recommendations about tax reform, made equity in tax allocation and collection a primary concern in addition to presenting a tax neutral budget.
Dr. Omar Davies, Minister of Finance and Planning, stresses the need that the poor should not be disadvantaged. Therefore, the primary concern of the national budget should be how to facilitate growth so that the least among us can experience prosperity.
VOICELESS, MARGINALISED
Persons who are poor can be defined as those who are living below the poverty line. They do not have the basic necessities of life balanced diet, adequate water, shelter, clothes and clean air. They do not have access to quality education and health care. They are also voiceless, marginalised, abused and exploited. These persons must be priority on the budget because they need help urgently or they die.
That is why Jesus at the inauguration of his public ministry said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the gospel to the poor ..." (Luke 4:16).
This ought to be the focus of any minister of religion. In the 19th century, George Liele appealed for help from British Baptists because he said his members were too poor to take an offering.
Perhaps the church should have a threshold from which no tithes is taken 'a la Liele' or if persons on minimum wage pay tithe then it is treated as an insurance wherein the genuinely needy are helped from the general pool.
However, the sad truth is that the good intentions are frustrated with inadequate thinking and research, poor analysis, incorrect policy prescriptions and inappropriate programmes.
The Minister of Finance should be commended for not increasing the tax on gasolene not only because
of the inflationary effect and the potential inflammatory effect of social protests as occurred in the gas riots of 1979, 1985 and 1999.
The premise on which the Matalon Committee predicated the hike appears faulty. The committee based the argument for an increase on the fact that the price in Jamaica is low compared to other parts of the world.
However, that argument would make more sense if the income in those countries and Jamaica were similar. But the fact is that in Jamaica the minimum wage is $2,400 a week while in England it is $4,400 a week with a 10 per cent increase in October.
ADDITIONAL HARDSHIPS
The Minister of Finance blundered in increasing the GCT by 10 per cent effective May 1 while the threshold will not be increased until July 1.
This means that there will be two months of additional hardships especially for persons who signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Minimum wagers get a blow again because they do other purchases apart from exempt and zero-rated items. In addition the commentators are overstating the tax relief
Many persons are saying it is $4,000 a month not realising that the $4,000 is the amount that is not taxable so the amount of real money that will accrue is approximately $1,000 a month.
Another weakness of the budget is that one gets the impression that the minister is 'flip-flopping'. One year, there was no tax on computers and then one had to pay taxes and now the tax has been removed again. There needs to be consistency and predictability.
The GCT is too high. After a while a high GCT is counter-
productive and could affect compliance. In 1999, I proposed that persons should be called up on to accept a lower interest rate. Just as how the workers saved the country $5 billion through the MoU, there could be a MoU to accept a lower interest rate.
There is more that needs to be done for the persons who are poor. Hopefully, the Prime Minister in his last Budget presentation will address increases to the PATH programmes and other measures.
Rev. Devon Dick is pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church.
