Richard Byles reckons that the Government could ‘delay or stretch out’ the increase in income tax threshold next April in a bid to pump more resources into fighting crime.

According to Byles, co-chair of the Economic Oversight Committee (EPOC), the newly formed Economic Growth Council has cited crime as one of, if not the single most important impediment to growth in Jamaica.

Next April, the Government is expected to raise $16 billion to fund its key election campaign promise of an increase in the income tax threshold from just under $600,000 to $1.5 million. It partially fulfilled the promise on July 1 when it lifted the threshold to $1 million.

“I know that the business of crime is a complex issue and it has many moving parts. It has to do with management and information, but at the base of every effort are resources, and I am saying what Jamaica wants,” Byles reasoned.

“We have scarce resources; we are going to raise $16 billion next year to increase the tax threshold? Is that the best way to spend the scarce resources, or should we be putting some of it into fighting crime?” he questioned as he addressed journalists at the monthly EPOC press briefing at Sagicor’s head office in New Kingston yesterday.

Byles noted that his knowledge of public documents shows insufficient resources based on total capital expenditure of the Government of $43 billion and total capital expenditure for the national security ministry is $3.6 billion.

He added that an injection of $8 billion from revenues collected to fund the new tax threshold could place a “dent” on Jamaica’s crime problem.

“Let’s provide the resources that lay the foundation to really attack the issue of crime and delay or stretch out the business of raising the tax threshold. It seems to me that both the Opposition and the Government are of one view, that we should remove crime as a partisan issue,” Byles said.

“Well, let’s show that we believe that. Let the Opposition show they believe that; let the Government show they believe that by devoting some resources to fight crime. I made a similar appeal last year —maybe that was too early — but surely we can take it into consideration this time,” he said, pointing out that criminals are shooting, tying and burning children.

“We have to put a halt to this madness. We have to put all the resources we have to fight this scary evil,” he continued.

He noted that while pumping financial resources into the crime fighting will not be the only solution to the problem, additional resources could create the game-changing move the country needs. Recently, there has been an upsurge in crime across the country that has rocked the nation, namely the lottery scamming acts in Montego Bay and the murders of five people in March Pen, Spanish Town.

Meanwhile, measured against the Government of Jamaica’s budget, the country produced a primary surplus of $41.7 billion, compared to a budget of $17.5 billion. Net International Reserves stood at US$2.46 billion at the end of September, comfortably in excess of the International Monetary Fund target of US$1.857 billion.

Revenue collection of $190.4 billion for the first five months of the fiscal year was well above the target of $177.5 billion and was also 12 per cent above the same period last year.

Byles noted that tax collections of $177.7 billion continue to outperform budget by $9.2 billion and above 2015 by $18.9 billion. Tax categories with the best performances were general consumption tax, stamp duty, and Pay As You Earn. Travel tax was the main underperformer.