KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica Labour Party Deputy General Secretary, Richard Creary, is rejecting as “unwise and unconscionable” a call by Opposition Spokesman on Education, Damion Crawford, for General Consumption Tax (GCT) to be increased.

While speaking on the weekend at the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools conference in Trelawny, Crawford called for an increase in the tax by one per cent to fund education.

According to Crawford, a one per cent increase in GCT would equal $25 billion more in Government revenue which spread over 400,000 students would equate to approximately $67,000 more to be spent on each student.

“If you are interested in saying this funding model should be ‘free education’ because education has never been free — the reality is that parents have to pay some contributions to education including lunch — so we really have a model of no fee education. That is what we’re really at, no fee. So if we’re going to do no fee, then it must be subsidised in totality by the Government,” said Crawford.

In a statement on Wednesday, Creary described Crawford as “a senior member of the PNP shadow cabinet” and said the GCT Increase suggestion, should be rejected.

“The fact is that the JLP government has managed the economy skillfully and has been able, to a large extent, cushion the impact on Jamaicans of rising cost of living across the world. However, due to several developments across the globe, some local prices have inevitably increased which has posed a challenge to some consumers. In this context, Crawford’s call for an increase in GCT is particularly unwise and unconscionable and should be rejected,” Creary commented.

Creary says the fact is Jamaica allocates approximately 20 per cent of its budget and five per cent of its GDP to education. He says this puts Jamaica in the upper tier of the world in terms of the allocation of national resources to education.

According to Creary, as opposed to proposing tax increases, the PNP would be better served working with the government on pursuing reformation of the education sector which would ensure the more effective utilisation of “the significant resources allocated” and assist in securing improved outcomes.
The JLP Deputy General Secretary says Jamaicans should take careful note of the PNP spokesman’s call for an increase in GCT. Creary says the governing party is proud of its record of not imposing any new taxes on Jamaicans over the past eight years.

“Jamaicans should not return to the days where the PNP heaped billions of dollars of taxes on the backs of the Jamaican people and pursued policies which devastated the people but greatly benefited a few politically connected individuals,” Creary concluded.