KINGSTON, Jamaica— Member of Parliament for East Kingston and Port Royal, Phillip Paulwell, is proposing that a tax be imposed on some data services to allow the cash-strapped Universal Service Fund (USF) to better carry out its mandate which includes the provision of free Wi-fi service in public spaces across Jamaica.

Paulwell made the suggestion recently during his contribution to the State of the Constituency Debate in the House of Representative where he reminded that the USF was established when he was the Minister of Technology in a previous People’s National Party (PNP) Government.

He argued that while he was grateful that the current Government was connecting three communities in each of the 63 constituencies to free Wi-fi, it was woefully inadequate.

“I’m very concerned about the future of the Universal Service Fund,” said Paulwell while arguing that the original aim was not to have free Wi-fi in various communities but rather throughout the length and breadth of the country.

“The aim was for Jamaica to become a veritable hotspot so if you’re travelling from Kingston to Montego Bay, a public space, you should be able to have free Wi-fi throughout, that was the original aim,” Paulwell stressed.

He emphasised that this was the thinking behind the fight that the then government had to endure to get the fund establish as he recalled the imposition of the tax on international calls terminating in Jamaica.

“We (Jamaicans) didn’t pay the tax, it was imposed on people calling Jamaica and some people were very upset that we were doing so,” said the veteran MP. Paulwell recalled further that for three days after the imposition of the tax, Jamaica was “locked off” because the international carriers protested.

“They shut off the circuits, for three days those circuits were shut down with the Opposition calling for the Minister’s (Paulwell) head but we didn’t blink and they had to turn on back the circuits after three days because we were able to justify that Jamaica should not be in any way not be able to have full broadband access on the same level as people anywhere in the world,” Paulwell recalled.

He noted that with the tax, the USF generated in excess of $14 billion over a five-year period but the money went into the Consolidated Fund. This was not changed until 2013 when the law was amended to enable the USF to have its own accounts. The former technology minister is making the case for the $14 billion to be paid back to the USF to enable the entity to properly fulfill its mandate.

“I’m therefore calling upon the Ministry of Finance in light of the fact that the USF does not now have enough money to do more (to hand over the funds),” Paulwell pleaded. He argued that some constituencies need up to 40 Wi-fi hotspots but the USF does not have the resources “because a lot of that money was sequestered and even now as we speak, the funds that do come into the USF…are not enough.”

Paulwell pointed out that the importance of voice telephony that generated these funds has dwindled as people are no longer making voice telephone calls at the rate and at the cost as they once did.

Paulwell said: “Many people are using free Whatsapp calls so we are not attracting, we not getting the revenues and so it is now time for us to review that and to impose a cess on some of the data services. We must do so (in a way) that we do not disincentivise … those businesses that are involved in data services”.

Paulwell acknowledged that his proposal is tricky but said “we do need the funds to get the USF to be viable”.