The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has called for Government to immediately make the necessary arrangements to implement the promised income tax threshold of $275,000 by no later than February 1.

Government postponed the planned January 1 implementation of a 42 per cent hike in the income tax threshold, which would have pushed the level at which Jamaicans begin to pay tax on their yearly incomes to a little more than $275,000.

An estimated 31,000 Jamaicans, who would have been free from income tax if the Government had kept its January 1 deadline, are now expected to wait until April for Dr. Omar Davies, Minister of Finance and Planning, to pronounce on when they can cash in on the benefit.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Opposition spokesman on finance and the public service Audley Shaw said the rationale behind the non implementation of the new tax threshold is a "weak and lame excuse."

Never announced in 2005

Mr. Shaw said the comments made by Financial Secretary Collin Bullock, on behalf of Dr. Davies, stating that he wanted to address issues of removal of productivity schemes among other things in order to make the initiative revenue neutral, were never announced by the Minister in 2005 as a precondition to the implementation of the final step of a phased increase of the schedule over the past year and a half.

Mr. Shaw said the minister should implement the new tax threshold and not try to delay the concession in an attempt to secure political points by making the announcement just prior to the calling of general elections.