PROFESSIONAL groups and trade unions last evening gave varied responses to Finance Minister Audley Shaw’s $555-billion budget presentation, arguably the most critical in the history of the nation.

Shaw announced the much speculated gasoline tax, setting it at $8.75 per litre, along with other tough decisions such as a three per cent increase of the customs user fee on selected petroleum products.

The imposing of a gas tax spurred concerns that it could lead to social unrest given events such as in April 1999 when its announcement triggered islandwide violence.

But Shaw tempered his harsh budget with a 100 per cent increase in the income tax threshold that will see it move from $220,000 per year to $440,000 per year in two stages, beginning in July and culminating next January.

Jamaica Gasoline Retailers Association (JGRA) president Trevor Barnes, who on Wednesday told the Observer he was awaiting the finance minister’s budget speech before commenting on the gas tax, yesterday accepted the $8.75 cess as necessary.

“We understand the predicament the country faces and we have to call on our members and the country to try and ride out this difficult time,” he said.

The JGRA had proposed that special payments made by Petrojam to gasoline marketing companies be diverted to Government to offset a tax on gasoline.

But yesterday, he admitted that the approximately $1 billion to be garnered from that approach would not be enough to negate the need for a cess on petrol. “The budget shortfall is much greater than that, but it could help,” Barnes said.

President of the National Workers Union Vincent Morrison was more militant, dismissing the budget as a slight of hand. “Overall there is nothing in the budget for the workers,” Morrison charged. “There is no gain for them.”

“It’s like you give something in the right hand and take it back in the left hand,” he said, contending that the tax on gasoline was regressive.

Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica president Christopher Zacca, arguing that the country had been “borrowing too much for too long”, said that Government had little choice in presenting the measures it did.

Zacca added that the finance minister did a good job in an extremely difficult position considering the current international economic crisis.

“He did a reasonable job in presenting (the budget) in a way to diffuse tensions about civil unrest,” Zacca said, adding that further analysis would have to be done to see the possible effects of the various announcements made by Shaw.

Meanwhile, Jamaica Teachers’ Association president Doran Dixon, caught up in the discussions regarding teacher’s salary, said he was unable to give an opinion.