MONTEGO BAY, St James — President of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourism Association (JHTA) Wayne Cummings is warning that if the requested roll back of General Consumption Tax (GCT) is not granted by government, some members of the tourism sector will be unable to pay it.

“Our plans are to continue to agitate on one hand, but on the other hand many of us are not going to hand over the taxes to the Government because it is not physically there to happen,” Cummings stated.

Noting that the GCT stimulus package last year greatly assisted the sector, the JHTA head who spoke to journalists shortly after the opening of the second JAPEX in Montego Bay last week, expressed disappointment over the Ministry of Finance’s refusal to respond to verbal and written communications from the JHTA “with regards to re-introducing it.

” It is of major concern to me that there has been no formal response to advise what the problems are. If they are prepared to do anything what is it they are going to do? But I think the sector is sufficiently important and the ministry of finance ought to get back to us as soon as possible,” he said.

He further noted that : “The Government can’t just look at its fiscal space, they need to be considering the viability of business because as we get through this fiscal year and we get into the next we should be talking about the health and the strength of these businesses to move forward. ” The Government still has an opportunity to respond to us because the September payments of GCT are actually payable at the end of October.

Noting that the sector was facing a serious cash flow problem, he said the situation has to be dealt with very carefully.

“We are finding great difficulty relating to our suppliers, the farming community. The payable situation is getting wider and wider and wider. It is not unusual to see people talking 90 days and 120 days. It means you are putting them out of business at the same time. And why has this been so? because we saw an increase in our GCT “.