THE BUDGET Debate may now be history, but it is still generating a great deal of sound, if not enough fury. In retrospect, some interesting features have emerged from the political fog and propaganda which accompanied it.The Prime Minister's contribution to the Debate was a great disappointment, more for what it did not say than what it did. His speech was unfocused, obviously trying to navigate between blandishment for the upcoming local elections and the urgent need for someone to offer the kind of leadership demanded by the present economic crisis facing the nation.
As captain of the ship of state, we would have expected the Prime Minister to have addressed, in a general but insightful way, some of the national concerns arising from the new tax measures announced by his Minister of Finance, especially after Mr. Shaw's fiery if somewhat rhetorical response to them. What the Prime Minister did was to pass the buck back to Dr. Omar Davies, which was much like the captain of the Titanic telling the passengers that his chief engineer would be dealing with the technical problems while he talked about new amenities being planned for the return voyage.
Among the pleasantries offered by Mr. Patterson was a plan for urban renewal, to be financed by the cash-rich National Housing Trust (NHT), both as to construction of units and their ongoing maintenance this unlike the Malaysian model touted by the Prime Minister which involves private sector developers who get generous incentives, put on the bulk of the funding and see to it that the schemes work. Mr. Patterson's admonition that his plan is not to be seen as creating new garrison communities may turn out to be wishful thinking.
Mr. Seaga's contribution to the debate was thoughtful, but hardly more inspiring than the Prime Minister's. He made the very practical criticism that the new tax measures should be phased in gradually, that no economy can stand such a large one-shot dose of taxes. He pledged to oppose the four per cent cess on imports as being counter-productive and lambasted the gaps and goofs in how it is proposed to widen the GCT net.
In closing the debate, an obviously beleaguered but stubborn Dr. Davies, made some concessions in the case of prescription drugs and agricultural inputs but instead dropped the GCT bombshell on the gaming industry which is always an easy target for new taxation.
After heated debate in the Taxation Committee of the House, it is more evident than ever that the new tax measures were not properly and thoroughly thought out, that there has been a barrage of shooting from the hip which, far from instilling confidence, is breeding more confusion and panic, reflected in the continued devaluation of the Jamaican dollar below the 60 to one barrier.
The ship of state may not be sinking, but it is sailing in circles with a heavy list to port. Somebody needs to grab the wheel.
