President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Luis Alberto Moreno (left) shares a word with president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) Christopher Zacca at yesterday's PSOJ Annual Economic Forum held at the Bank of Jamaica Auditorium, located at Nethersole Place in downton Kingston.

Finance Minister Audley Shaw is urging the private sector to start paying their taxes in full. Addressing the Private Sector of Jamaica's (PSOJ's) annual Economic Forum at the Bank of Jamaica in downtown Kingston yesterday, Shaw urged his audience to help mend what he said was Jamaica's tax compliance "crisis".

"Sixty-eight per cent of the arrears of which we speak are corporate income tax arrears, 68 per cent, and the truth is that right now we have a situation where it is a very, very small, it's like one per cent of Jamaica paying 75 per cent of corporate taxes so we have a lot of work to do," he said.

Citing the recruitment of former Director of Elections Danville Walker as Commissioner of Customs, he said that government was on a "mission" to improve service and efficiency; and reduce corruption and waste.

"Customs has been a hotbed of corruption and Mr PSOJ President (ChristopherZacca), 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," said the minister of finance.

He was also addressing his speech to Luis Alberto Moreno, president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), also sharing the head table. The president of the IDB later echoed Shaw's views on compliance and is in Jamaica for talks with both the finance minister and Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who holds the planning portfolio.

He expressed satisfaction that the government had achieved fiscal responsibility by recording a budget deficit of 4.7 per cent, a figure lower than the 5.5 per cent initially projected.
Shaw added that he would soon be going to Parliament to increase the debt ceiling.

Omar Davies, his predecessor and current opposition spokesman on finance, was keen to remind that Jamaica had not yet defaulted on its loan repayments. "I do not believe that there is enough recognition in terms of our country's consistently honouring its obligations," said Davies.

Shaw said that the Golding administration's dialogue with multilateral institutions including the IDB and the World Bank had so far been encouraging despite Jamaica being a heavily-indebted middle-income country. He said that Jamaica was aggressively seeking policy-based loans in the key areas of energy and food, as well as education.
He added that the IDB was "very soft" towards private sector lending.

"We have to look for cheaper money...the truth is that whether it's three per cent money or it's four per cent money or it's five per cent money, we've got to go into that direction, so that over time we can bring the market rate of money in Jamaica down to levels that are acceptable for cost-effective private sector investment."

Shaw and Moreno signed a J$116- million loan agreement. Taking his turn to speak Moreno stressed the need for long-term partnership: "I think this country deserve(s) a better chance."

Agreeing with a statement by Davies that more needed to be done on education, Moreno said that the sector would be a priority in discussions with Government as will be rural development to remedy neglect by Latin American and Caribbean governments during the 1990s.

"They basically forgot the rural areas and we need to focus again on the rural areas, to develop roads, especially rural roads, to look at irrigation...and also the type of technology that one uses today."

The IDB has US$500 million available for rural development.

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