By McPherse Thompson, Staff ReporterFINANCIAL SECRETARY Shirley Tyndall has underscored the importance of strengthening the tax collection system to improve the state's revenue intake especially in view of severe financial constraints facing the country at this time.
Although Miss Tyndall did not say what action the Ministry of Finance and Planning anticipated over the next few months if revenue collection did not make up for the shortfall, she said the Government would continue to pursue the tax administration reform programme, which calls for increasing revenues without increasing taxes.
Under the tax administration reform programme, she said, they were already observing signs of improvement in tax collection due to compliance and expansion of the tax net. However, much more needed to be done to accomplish the mission.
Miss Tyndall was speaking at the opening of what will be a 13-month training programme for 25 revenue agents at the Management Institute for National Development (MIND) at Old Hope Road, St. Andrew on Monday.
The Financial Secretary said the existing budgetary problems, partly attributable to the debt incurred by the intervention in and rehabilitation of the financial sector, have been exacerbated by uncontrollable international and domestic events over the past year.
"These unforeseen occurrences only serve to deepen the fiscal problem, hence the importance of increasing revenue collection so as to reduce our debt requirements, and this cannot be overemphasised," she said.
The huge financial challenges notwithstanding, Miss Tyndall said, "I personally do not consider them to be insurmountable. There is still much to be done by revenue service officers to achieve our goals, and I look forward with optimism, despite being fully aware of potential obstacles and resistance to change, along the way."
The training programme for the latest batch of revenue agents is part of the Govern-ment's thrust to improve assessment and collection of taxes. The post of revenue agent was created so that a "one call does it all" officer could serve the taxpayer, instead of a number of officers representing different tax branches calling on the same taxpayer at different times. The revenue agent investigates the full realm of tax responsibilities of each taxpayer.
Participants in the training programmes are selected from tertiary graduates with degrees or diplomas in accounting, management studies, business administration and other related disciplines. Selection and training are conducted by the Tax Administration Services Department (TASD) in collaboration with MIND. When they have completed the programme, graduates are appointed as revenue agents and assigned to the various revenue departments.
