Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter
OPPOSITION MEMBER of Parliament for the St. Elizabeth North West constituency, J.C. Hutchinson, has called for a lowering of the General Consumption Tax (GCT) on agricultural equipment.
The former Opposition Spokesman on Agriculture made the call during his contribution to the 2005/06 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
He urged Finance and Planning Minister Dr. Omar Davies to give special consideration to the agriculture sector.
TAX PACKAGE IMPACT
"This is the sector that is caught up in the most competitive environment. The tax package ... is going to impact heavily on the farmers of this country. I am requesting that there be a lowering of the GCT on agricultural equipment, on machinery and parts and tools," said Hutchinson.
Dr. Davies, during his contribution to the 2005/06 Budget Debate in April, had announced that GCT on agricultural equip-ment would move from 15 per cent to 16.5 per cent.
But Mr. Hutchinson argued that machine and equipment made up more than 50 per cent of the farmers' production cost and that increasing the tax would affect the cost of production of all crops and the productivity of the farmers.
STRUCTURED APPROACH
On the issue of the competitiveness of the sector, Mr. Hutchinson said that there has to be a structured approach in the development of the sector.
"Monitoring of the planting and reaping of crops has to be done through an organisation. For the past three years, I have given comprehensive proposals for the development and growth of the agriculture sector," Hutchinson said.
"These included a comprehensive plan in establishing a marketing system, development of a whole-sale market with grading and packaging stations, a processing plant for the processing of value-added products and lowering the cost of inputs, so that the cost of production would be lowered, making the produce more competitive," he said.
