MANCHESTER, Jamaica – More tax office upgrades are to be carried out across the island, says Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr Nigel Clarke.

Delivering the main address at the Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) ceremony to break ground for the Christiana tax office in Manchester on February 23, the minister said 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”.

“We are here today to celebrate the infrastructure upgrade for the Christiana Tax Office, and the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service is working on an upgrade to tax offices across Jamaica,” he added.

Clarke said the ground-breaking was a prelude to what would be unveiled across Jamaica over a number of years and encouraged the audience to be patient, as planning and procurement take time, but the Government’s plan is to upgrade the existing facilities.

“We have already started in Montego Bay with a major renovation of the tax office there; in a few months Mandeville will have its groundbreaking and there are others to come,” he noted.

Clarke said the TAJ should put the projects forward, as the Government would make the capital expenditure space available.

“Let’s renovate tax offices and improve them across Jamaica, because at the end of the day, it’s not simply about getting the debt down or the fiscal balance or the primary balance; those are means to an end. The end that we seek is to improve and increase the quality of life of the Jamaican citizen,” the minister said.

Meanwhile, Commissioner General of the TAJ, Ainsley Powell, said the present space had outgrown its ability to meet the needs of staff and customers.

“In 2022, collections went up to 102,316 people passing through our cashiers and we collected $1.2 billion, so there is growth. In planning this office, what we had in mind was to have seating for customers and use a queuing system to have them comfortably seated and served,” Powell said.

Other amenities will be an electronic ticketing system, allowing customers to select a space in line or make appointments, duplicating what now exists at the Constant Spring and Falmouth offices. There is also the addition of the processing of drivers’ licences as well as motor-vehicle registration.

“Customers will be able to go online, renew their registration and collect it at an office or have it delivered by the postal service,” he said.

The tax office will serve thousands of customers from as far as Albert Town in Trelawny, Manchester North East, parts of St Ann and Frankfield in Clarendon.

The new tax office will be a two-storey reinforced concrete structure of 10,000 square feet, with a guard house and a power house. The present space is only 1,152 square feet.

It will be able to accommodate the physically challenged, have some 80 parking spaces, bathrooms for customers, and cubicles for the wheelchair user on the ground floor.

There will also be its own sewerage treatment plant, the necessary networking support, a generator as well as a recreational area and a conference room. Completion is set for 18 to 24 months.