As has been affirmed repeatedly by this column, the present People’s National Party (PNP) Administration must be applauded for the way in which it has attended tenaciously to creating a viable economic environment in Jamaica. Yes, under the strict scrutiny of the Interntaional Monetary Fund (IMF), and given Jamaica’s parlous, almost beggarly condition, there was no choice to do otherwise.

The Government could have been lax or lethargic in coming up with the policies and faithfully executing them as the IMF demanded. They could have delayed the most embarrassing ones, skirted around the ones hardest to apply, and given reams of rationalisation why they were late in meeting targets and thus failing respective tests. They did none of that, which is to the credit of the Government and the main driver of its economic policy, Dr Peter Phillips, the minister of finance.

As has been acknowledged by other commentators, the bane of the Government has been its failure to convince the ordinary Jamaican that what has been achieved to date is in his or her own best interests. In fact, it is to convince the masses — not the elites and those with a lot of cash to go around — that there is a direct relationship between passing the IMF tests and the euphemistic people’s test. If you talk to people in the top echelons of the private sector, things could not be better. There is optimism that for the first time in a long time Jamaica is on the road to mend its broken economy. There is now the glimmer of hope that we can break out of the horrible description of being a breadbasket case; of getting to a point where we can stand and salute our benefactors with dignity than with hands outstretched with palms up expecting to receive something.

The robust growth of the Jamaican stock market and it being designated the number one stock exchange in the world in 2015 has helped to strengthen the optimism of those who believe that the economy is on the right track. Again, more attention must be paid to educating Jamaicans as to the benefits that can be derived from trading on the stock exchange. The risk appetite of the Jamaican can be very strong if the daily investment in the lottery trade, and even dubious investment schemes, are anything to go by. Between the management of the stock exchange and the various brokerage houses, more must be done to generate a broader participation of Jamaicans in the market and to remove the myth that the stock market is only for the elites and the rich.

As we encourage such participation, the Government must not do anything to interfere with what has been the robust growth of the junior stock exchange.

Everyone who has no political axe to grind must agree that since its inception, in 2009, the Junior Market, to put it mildly, has been a force for good for capital formation in Jamaica. Its formation and encouragement to grow by tax incentives given under the previous Government, under which the exchange was introduced, has been a useful tonic to the economy. It has come as a significant part of the medicine to induce growth in an ailing economy. To push the medical analogy further, it is being seen as an indispensable elixir in what can really make the country survive economically.

This is why alarm must be sounded at the Government’s expressed desire to roll back these incentives and by so doing virtually cripple the junior stock exchange. The Government is not saying whether its desire to phase out the incentives is IMF-directed. The IMF has been careful to point out that the policies outlined by the Government are strictly their own and for which they have to bear responsibility. So we have to assume that the attention being paid to the junior stock exchange is something over which the Government has some measure of control and independence. If this is not so, in the name of transparency, the Government should say so. It is foolhardy and worrying to cauterise something that is of abundant benefit to the economy. As others have argued, the foregoing of taxes to give new entities that want to list some breathing room is balanced by the growth and consequent revenue they can generate in the economy in terms of the expansion of these enterprises. In the long run, the country can only be the better for these efforts.

If the Government should go ahead with straitjacketing the Junior Market, it will only serve to strengthen the view that many people have of the PNP that they do not know how to grow an economy, or worse, they have no business orientation. Not only that, but it will strengthen the conviction of those who criticise the PNP of envy; that they have not learned the lessons of the 1970s and 80s not to begrudge the success of the private sector; that the socialist proclivities still persist which place the Government once again at variance with or opposition to capital.

The tax-everything-that-is-not-pinned-down approach of this Government is anathema to economic growth both in the short and long term. No business enterprise seems to succeed in Jamaica without the Government turning a “red eye” on it. No country has ever taxed its way to progress in the long term. The Government may extract what it thinks it can get from a hapless populace, but at some point, sooner than later, the whole thing collapses; as people stop producing, lose their jobs and there are less businesses and people to tax. It has been one of the more glaring failures of the Government under the IMF programme that it has placed an inordinate burden on taxes to fulfil the demands of the programme. A more robust approach must be found. One cannot see this as a function of the next budget since the Government is so deeply vested in this approach at the moment. But between now and the next budget presentation, the Government must give a clear and unequivocal undertaking that it will not dilute what has been one of the best tonics to the Jamaican economy in recent times.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest and social commentator. Send comments to the Observer orstead6655@aol.com