PSOJ president calls for tax cuts

Joseph Matalon, president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), is intensifying his organisation's call for deep tax cuts by Government.

Matalon was addressing members of the business community at a forum put on by cable provider Flow, the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and the PSOJ, at the Golf View Hotel.

According to Matalon, the current tax reform regime was being implemented on a "piece-meal basis". Contending that this did not encourage investment, he said that in most cases, the present tax measures lacked "consistency, cohesion and balance".

The PSOJ president, whose organisation's membership comprises some of the country's leading business entities, said he would like to see the government implement a tax system "with a wide base with as low as possible rate", while it phases out "tax preferences, concessions and waivers".

He said tax waivers have become a characteristic of the current tax regime, which he termed "unfair and inefficient".

Matalon cited World Bank figures saying it costs twice as much to do business in Jamaica when compared with what obtains glo-bally. This, he said, coupled with a web of cumbersome, antiquated regulatory and bureaucratic systems as well as complex laws, are deterrents to investments.

- Angelo Laurence