Opposition Leader Mark Golding is urging the Government to focus on collecting existing taxes more effectively, arguing that there is no need for new taxes as widespread leakage continues to leave billions uncollected.

Making his contribution to the 2026/27 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Golding said Jamaica is losing significant revenue because the system is not properly designed to ensure tax compliance. He contended that the country’s fiscal strategy should now shift away from imposing new burdens on taxpayers and, instead, concentrate on capturing revenue that is already legally due.

“The next stage of Jamaica’s economic reform should not be about increasing tax rates. That is lazy, unimaginative, and is an approach being taken by this Government which should change its path. We say no to that. It is bad economics, and will be damaging to the economy and the Jamaican people in our current circumstances,” Golding told Parliament.

His remarks come as the Government moves to implement a package of new revenue measures, including taxes on sugar-sweetend drinks, alcohol, cigarettes, and digital services, as well as other adjustments projected to generate billions of dollars. The Opposition, however, has maintained that the country can achieve similar or greater fiscal gains without introducing additional taxes, particularly at a time when households and businesses are still recovering from the economic fallout of Hurricane Melissa which hit sections of the island last October.

Golding argued that weaknesses in compliance are placing an unfair burden on individuals and businesses that already meet their tax obligations, while others are able to operate outside the system with little consequence.

“A revenue system should be judged by how much of what is legally due is actually collected consistently, efficiently, and equitably. Where leakage persists, compliant businesses and compliant consumers shoulder a disproportionate burden… Where enforcement is episodic, fairness erodes; where systems are fragmented, borrowing costs rise and compliant taxpayers suffer,” he said.

He pointed to recent evidence to support his argument, noting that targeted compliance initiatives have already yielded significant returns. According to Golding, the tax amnesty introduced in early 2025 brought in more than $10 billion in outstanding payments, demonstrating the scale of revenue that remains outside the formal system.

Beyond enforcement, the opposition leader proposed a broader overhaul of how Jamaica’s tax system operates, with a strong emphasis on technology and integration across government agencies. He said modernising the system would allow for real-time verification of transactions and reduce opportunities for under-reporting and fraud.

“Jamaica also needs to seriously pursue a structural integration of systems so that compliance becomes automatic rather than discretionary. Some estimates suggest that the improved realisation across key avenue categories could yield $60 billion annually, without increasing statutory rates,” Golding said

He highlighted General Consumption Tax (GCT), the country’s largest indirect tax, as one of the areas in which reform could deliver immediate results. Under the current system, businesses collect taxes at the point of sale but remit them later, creating opportunities for discrepancies and delayed payments. Golding argued that adopting electronic invoicing and digital validation systems, which he said is already used in several countries, could significantly improve collections.

“Electronic invoicing systems are now standard across much of Latin America and parts of Europe and Asia, requiring invoices to be digitally validated in real time. Every transaction is time-stamped. Every input credit must match a verified supplier invoice. Returns are auto populated from validated data. That shift is transformative, as it moves the system from post-event enforcement to transaction-level verification,” he explained.

“The documented increase in revenue collections from implementing these systems ranges from five per cent to 15 per cent, depending on the level of previous compliance. For Jamaica, even a conservative projection of a two per cent improvement in effective GCT and SCT (special consumption tax) realisation would yield $8.6 billion annually, in the first year… No GCT or SCT rate increase required. Just better system design,” he added.

He also identified similar inefficiencies in income tax, Customs duties, and the construction sector, arguing that better data-sharing between agencies could expose inconsistencies and reduce evasion. He said linking tax filings with Customs records, payroll data, and building approvals would allow authorities to detect irregularities more quickly and improve overall compliance.

Taken together, he estimated that such reforms could generate revenue equivalent to roughly two per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) each year, creating significant fiscal space without increasing the tax burden.

“That is not incremental reform, it represents additional fiscal space of 10 per cent of GDP over five years. It is achievable not by increasing the tax burden, but by being smarter in how we utilise the architecture of the tax system,” he said.

His proposals form part of a wider Opposition critique of the Government’s fiscal approach which, it argues, relies too heavily on new taxes and withdrawals from the National Housing Trust, rather than structural reforms to drive growth and efficiency.

Golding insisted that improving compliance is not about punishing taxpayers, it is to stop the leakages that allow billions in legally owed revenue to go uncollected and place an unfair burden on compliant individuals and businesses.

“Reform to improve the integrity of the tax system is not punitive, it promotes economic fairness. It protects compliant businesses from being undercut by non-compliant competitors. It narrows bureaucratic discretion, it shrinks the space for corruption, it strengthens investor confidence, [and] it increases fairness,” said Golding.

Opposition Leader Mark Golding make his contribution to the 2026/27 Budget Debate in Gordon House on Tuesday. Seated is the Opposition spokeaman on finance Julian Robinsion. (Photo: Karl Mclarty)