Opposition Believes Jamaicans Were Deceived
On Thursday Finance Minister, Audley Shaw announced that the tax threshold for all Jamaicans will be increased to $1 million as of July 1, 2016 and will be further increased to $1.5 million on April 1, 2017.
This announcement followed weeks of speculation over whether the promised break would ever become a reality.
However, in order to fill the budgetary gap the increased threshold has created, Jamaicans will now have to spend more in other areas.
There will be a $7 per litre increase in the Special Consumption Tax (SCT) on petrol.
Minister Shaw while speaking on Thursday, also announced an increase in the SCT on cigarettes, cigars, igarillos and cheroots to $14 per stick which, he said, should not push the price of cigarettes beyond $45 per stick.
Jamaicans will also have to fork out a little more money to spend on departure tax as it increases to US$35 from the current rate of US$14.53.
After the long awaited announcement, the Opposition PNP wasted no time to share their view that the people of Jamaica have been deceived.
Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller said:
“All I can say now is that they have broken their promise but from all indication of what [Finance Minister Audley Shaw] said today, it is the poor that will suffer,”
“They had indicated no new tax, they had broken their promise to the Jamaican people. It is very bad when a government make a promise and broke that promise to the people. It is very, very bad,”
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