Dear Editor,

The presentation of the latest government national budget indicates how unimaginative the government of the island is. The budget is not presented as though there are national urgencies that require new thinking and new approaches that will benefit the majority of the population over the long run.

No sensible person can be against taxation. We demand certain things from our government: individual and collective security; good roads; good schools; accessible and adequate public health services; reliable water and affordable electricity services. The government borrows money both from locals as well as on the international market to build the necessary infrastructure that satisfies the commonly accepted needs of a modern society. Taxes, in addition to paying the cost of administration, also pay the costs of retiring the loans.

What does not surface, however, in the way the government proposes and imposes taxes is that there is any correlation between taxes and the imported standards of the status quo. While taxes keep going up, the citizen is not shown how the investment today improves life tomorrow.

Before every budget discussion in Parliament the government should be required to review publicly its short and long-term plans and show exactly how the taxes collected will be used to improve life for everyone. In other words, the presentation of the budget should be different. Instead of shortfalls between national income and expenditures, the budget should clearly indicate what proportions would be utilised for the various specific purposes indicated, and what benefits will accrue to the society at large by the type of tax collected and the proposed applied expenditure.

Jamaicans need to know when and if we will ever come off the tax treadmill. That is not too much to ask of our government.

Duncan Brown

May Pen

Clarendon