Every public relations practitioner should have already sent off a proposal to Finance Minister Audley Shaw on how not to make a speech.

Last week, Mr Shaw addressed the annual Economic Forum put on by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) at the Bank of Jamaica, having among his distinguished audience some of the cream of the Jamaican business community and, significantly, the visiting president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Mr Luis Alberto Moreno.

It might have been overenthusiasm or Mr Shaw might have been trying to show Mr Moreno how tough he was on non-tax compliance, but the minister said these words:

"Customs has been a hotbed of corruption and Mr PSOJ president, I am going to be blunt, it is a hotbed of corruption because private sector importers themselves are participating along with customs officers and customs brokers in robbing the treasury of vitally needed money to run the country."

Mr Shaw started out on good grounds. Nearly every Jamaican who is not a tax dodger, agrees with him that too many people are not paying their taxes.

That is one of the reasons for the heavy burden on those who are forced to pay their taxes through the Pay As You Earn, or PAYE system, where the tax is deducted before the pay packet reaches the hands of the employee.

In any event, a small country like Jamaica cannot sustain such high levels of non-payment of taxes and still expect to meet all the pressing needs of the country, such as good schools, roads, hospitals, delivery of potable water and the like.

The minister, quite correctly, quantified it an astounding $59 billion in total tax arrears, without interests and penalties, with the bulk owed being corporate income taxes.

"Sixty-eight per cent of those arrears are held by people.falling within the corporate income tax section," said Mr Shaw. Overall tax compliance, he said, was not encouraging. GCT at 65 per cent compliance was the best performing tax group. "Every other tax type is below 50 per cent and the worst of all tax types is corporate income tax," he disclosed.

Where Mr Shaw loses us is in not taking the care to not leave the impression that every single business person in this country is robbing the treasury. Had Mr Shaw consulted with his PR people before making that speech, they would have edited out that section and saved him the embarrassment of himself and his Government.

In this regard, the concern expressed by the PSOJ president, Mr Chris Zacca, and the president of the Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Association of Jamaica (CBFFAJ), Mr Christopher Kennedy, is quite understandable.

But that is a problem we face in this country. Instead of facing those who are guilty, there is a tendency to reach for the broad brush and paint everyone in the same worthless colour. No one needs us to tell him or her how desperately demoralising this practice can be.

Moreover, Mr Shaw must understand that he is dealing with a problem that has plagued every administration since tax collection began. To solve that one is going to take only the most creative approach, in order to pull everyone into the tax net.

He needs to sit quietly with all the players and work, work and work until a solution is found. Not run off at the mouth.
If Mr Shaw already has a PR practitioner, he should know what to do with him.

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