Dear Editor,

As Jamaicans reel from Hurricane Melissa’s devastation — destroyed homes, flooded communities, and shattered livelihoods — our Government proposes tax hikes that beggar belief. With US$150 million in international aid secured, why burden the very citizens who suffered most? This is not recovery; it’s robbery.

Logically, aid from partners like the US and UN should fund reconstruction, sparing taxpayers. Yet we’re told more taxes are needed. Where is the transparent audit of these funds? Without it, raising levies on the vulnerable smacks of mismanagement.

Worse, the proposed subscription tax is blatant double taxation. General Consumption Tax (GCT) is already embedded in every bank payment for these services — mirroring the scrapped mobile credit tax fiasco. This layers penalty on penny-pinching entertainment for working families, while evasion in high-end sectors persists unchecked.

Most galling: Plans to dip into the National Housing Trust (NHT) to plug budget holes. NHT contributions — from 2 per cent of every worker’s pay — ought to be sacrosanct for affordable housing. Melissa exposed our housing crisis: Shanties submerged and dreams drowned. Yet NHT languishes with backlogs for the poor and working class, as successive governments treat it like an automated teller machine. Raiding it now betrays its mandate and our security.

These ad hoc measures — haphazard, illogical, and inequitable — reveal a system engineered for elite comfort, not citizen resilience. They tax today’s pain to fund tomorrow’s circus, eroding trust in the social contract.

We urge the Government to:

• publish aid expenditure breakdowns immediately

•scrap duplicative taxes; broaden the base progressively

• ring-fence NHT strictly; fast-track housing for hurricane victims

Jamaica deserves better than placation. Average citizens — resilient, overtaxed — demand accountability, equity, and real recovery. Prime Minister Andrew Holness, listen before loyalty frays.

Yannick Nesta Pessoa

yannickpessoa@yahoo.com