Cautiously optimistic that often-repeated plans to improve the infrastructure in the parish will become a reality this time around, residents of Duhaney Pen, St Thomas, are urging the Government to ensure that small businesses are supported in any scheme to grow the economy in the often-forgotten eastern parish.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness earlier this year announced that the parish is slated to get a major boost with the establishment of a new town centre for the capital, Morant Bay.
The town centre is slated to be constructed on the 25-acre lot which previously housed the Goodyear Tyre Factory.
Travelling to the parish is also slated to become easier, with the construction of a four-lane highway from Harbour View to Bull Bay, and the widening and improvement to the road between Bull Bay and Morant Bay.
Last Thursday, several residents of the parish were excited by the proposed developments as The Gleaner‘s On The Corner, with the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC), made its latest stop in Duhaney Pen.
 
ECONOMIC TRAIN TO GROWTH
 
Having listened to co-chairman of EPOC, Keith Duncan, outline the role of the body in monitoring the Government’s performance under the three-year International Monetary Fund standby agreement, the residents urged him to implore the Andrew Holness administration to ensure that small business operators in the parish are not forgotten.
“I believe the economic train to growth is through small business, so while we are clamouring for the big businesses to come, in the interim we should develop the smaller businesses and help those businesses to grow, which in turn will turn into big businesses,” said Denver Howell.
He argued that training is needed to prepare residents of the underdeveloped parish to prepare for developments being planned by the Government.
“While we are clamouring for good road and urban centre around by Goodyear, I don’t want when it comes finally, the people of St Thomas can’t access it. The powers that be need to move now to start training the school leavers from now so they can be ready when the time comes,” added Howell.
While agreeing with the call, Duncan urged the residents not to wait on the Government but to position themselves to be better able to capitalise on the opportunities.
“If we know where the economy is going; if we know the economy is going towards tourism, business processing outsourcing or call centres, or manufacturing; and we know the resources that you have in St Thomas, you have to seek out those resources, and as a group of businessmen get together and build partnerships,” encouraged Duncan.
But a fired-up Howell was adamant that governmental support is needed to help the residents of St Thomas enjoy economic success.
“St Thomas has tried agriculture for many years and I don’t see where agriculture is growing in the parish,” said Howell.
“I believe the parish can shift dimension and go into health tourism. We have the Blue Mountain and we have clean water and we have Bath Fountain. What we need to do is upgrade our facilities like the Princess Margaret Hospital and invite the tourist to come and access the various natural resources.”
He was supported by business operator Hansel Whyte, who argued that the Government needs to engage the residents to identify ways to empower them to help themselves so small businesses such as his can thrive.
 
Source: The Gleaner: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20170820/corner-epoc-st-thomas-residents-want-support-small-businesses

 
 
For years, residents of St Thomas have complained that they are not benefiting from the numerous resources in the parish.
Those cries were repeated last Thursday as The Gleaner On The Corner, with the Economic Pro-gramme Oversight Commit-tee (EPOC), made its latest stop in Duhaney Pen.
Leading the charge was businessman Denver Howell, who argued that St Thomas is being raped, with none of its resources used to move the parish forward.
“How can it be that the water from St Thomas supplies Kingston and yet still the people who live in the hills of St Thomas where the water is coming from have to bore the pipeline to get a little water to do the basics?” asked Howell to loud cheers from his neighbours.
Howell noted that the parish is uniquely blessed with construction aggregate, which has been used to build numerous hotels, highways and roadways outside of the parish with no monetary returns from the material.
“It has been said that St Thomas have the best aggregate but yet we don’t have a proper road. It’s foolishness,” declared Howell.
The businessman argued that if successive governments had collected even a small contribution from every litre of water and tonne of aggregate to leave the parish, St Thomas would be among Jamaica’s most developed and richest parishes.
With co-chairman of EPOC Keith Duncan engaging the audience as he outlined the role of EPOC in monitoring the Government’s performance under the three-year International Monetary Fund standby agreement, Howell argued that St Thomas would take off if a more active role was played in applying taxes to the resources.
In the meantime, Winston Thompson charged that over the years, respective administrations have favoured urban Jamaica at the expense of rural communities.
“The people here try hard to access social services but is just pure runaround we get. This country seem to only check for town areas and tourist resorts and avoid investments in the rural communities because they fear it will fail,” charged Thompson.
Fellow St Thomas resident Elaine Edwards agreed, as she argued that despite the willingness of the people of the parish to work, employment opportunities are scarce because of a lack of state investment.
“Government can do way more,” charged Edwards. “We have a lot of resources that can be put to good use and create employment, we just need the Government’s assistance and we’re not getting much, if any.”
 
Source: The Gleaner: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20170820/corner-epoc-they-are-raping-parish-st-thomas-residents-demand-greater

Preliminary figures indicate that Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) has exceeded the first quarter collections target for the 2017/18 fiscal year. The net projection for June 2017 was $26.2B. During the period June 1 – 30, 2017 however, net collections totalled $32.8B, representing 125.2% of projections. The year to date (YTD) net collections now stand at $73.6B which is 109.4% of the $67.3B projected for the period. Refund payments made during the same period totalled $1.0B. Year-to-date refund payments totalled approximately $3.9B.

A review of the first quarter performance over the last three financial years shows that the target has consistently been surpassed, 103.1% in 2015/16; 108.5% in 2016/17 and 109.4% this year.This positive outcome, so early in the financial year is as a result of the continuation of focused compliance strategies which have resulted in TAJ surpassing its annual target for the past two fiscal years.

These compliance efforts included closer monitoring of arrears which was facilitated through the implementation of the Revenue Administration Information System (RAiS); the mandating of medium taxpayers to file their GCT returns online; the application of a system generated penalty of $5,000 per month per return for late filing. Additionally, the positive outcome may be attributed to the implementation of strategies such as the threshold abuse and new taxpayer registration programmes.

The service and education push continued as Taxpayer Education Teams, Technical Specialists, Client Relationship Managers and Customer Care Agents interfaced with taxpayers to educate and inform them of their rights and obligations as well as provide tax information and assistance. Seminars, workshops, sensitization sessions and speaking engagements were some of the strategies employed. Traditional and social media were also employed to make information more readily available to taxpayers.

TAJ will continue to utilise all the avenues available to encourage and foster voluntary compliance through moral suasion. Notwithstanding, tax evaders will be aggressively pursued through intelligence and enforcement actions and brought to book.