MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Minister of Finance Dr Nigel Clarke says plans are advanced for the building of a new tax office in Mandeville “in a few months”, even as excavation work has started for a new tax office in Christiana.

He also announced plans for tax offices.

“Over the next few years our plan is to upgrade tax offices across Jamaica… The renovation of Montego Bay [tax office] is underway and we are going to break ground in Mandeville soon, and others [are] in the pipeline to come,” Clarke told his audience consisting of political and business leaders on Thursday gathered for the ground-breaking ceremony of the $670-million Christiana tax office.

The Jamaica Observer was told that the proposed site for the new location in Mandeville is in the vicinity of Perth Road and Bloomfield, north of the town centre.

The finance minister pointed to the US$188-million May Pen to Williamsfield leg of Highway 2000, which is scheduled for completion in August, and hinted that major projects will be announced for Manchester.

“We have some allocations that we are going to announce next week that will ensure that soon and very soon, we all will be able to drive on that highway on the route to Mandeville and Christiana,” said Clarke.

Government, he added, is focused on infrastructure development.

“We are connecting the country and enabling commerce and increasing efficiency and increasing productivity,” he said.

The construction of the new tax office in Christiana is expected to be completed within 18 months. The current tax office in the town is located on rented premises.

Dr Clarke said many tax offices were built decades ago, some from “from horse and buggy days. [They] are woefully inadequate to serve Jamaica today. Tax offices in many parts of the country do not have enough parking space because they were built at a time when the thought was that cars would not become as dominant a mode of transportation as they are today”, he said.

“Our tax offices are not only constrained in their parking, but they are also constrained in their internal accommodation — service points and seats. As a result, it can be an experience for taxpayers that leave something to be desired,” he added.

Dr Clarke said the Government has fiscal space to remedy infrastructural issues.

“With our debt going lower the possibility exists — with the fiscal space that is created — for us to address the deficiencies in our infrastructure in the country, and by addressing and improving those infrastructure deficiencies we thereby improve quality of life,” he reasoned.

“Over the next decade Jamaica is going to be in a position to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to improve public service delivery through infrastructure upgrades,” he added.