'The Grinch Who Stole Christmas'--The Audience's Screams Force A Re-make

I would have thought that the Jamaican remake of 'The Grinch Who Stole Christmas' that was released on December 17 was going to be such a box office flop that the national movie making business would have had to grow a whole new set of legs. But, like with the scripts of any good film that have been badly edited, a quick look around the cutting room floor will find the scenes that should have been scrapped in place of the trash that was about to be screened. So it is with Mr. Golding's recently announced J$21 billion tax package. The people spoke loudly and angrily and suddenly Mr. Golding has seen a new light and whoosh, a bit of reconsideration and the J$21 billion is still going to be extracted from the people but in a vastly different form. The Gleaner lead article talks about 'roll back' (see Gleaner report) and the Observer notes how the poorer segments have been spared while higher income earners have to bear more of the burden (see Observer report). Like the magician with his tattered black hat, the PM has pulled out a rabbit after pulling out a goat.


The full revised measures to provide additional revenue now look like the following:

Increase of GCT rate from 16.5% to 17.5%, $3.6b
15% Ad valorem tax on petroleum, $9.4b
SCT increase on cigarettes, $1.4b
Revised 10% GCT on tourism-related services, $1.2b
GCT on residential electricity customers, $711m
Net GCT on commercial and industrial electricity customers, $742m
Net Advanced GCT Payment on imports, $2.9b
Additional Income Tax on incomes exceeding $5M and $10M ,$1.317b
Increased motor vehicle licences for top-end vehicles & additional tax on specified luxury items, $542m

TOTAL $21.812b


I will not be the first or last to ask why this revised package was necessary. If it is the better option for the country why was it not there on the table already? Getting J$21 billion out of the economy is not easy and it is not the same whatever handles are turned or arms twisted. The economic impact will be different and the macro economists at the IMF and Bank of Jamaica and Ministry of Finance and Planning Institute should tell people quickly how this will impact the economy, and how it will be different than what was proposed originally. If the revised package is not better for the country, ie is a 'get out of jail' package, which piece of flim-flamming are we to expect next to help us make sense of what is in fact nonsense? Why were the politicians prepared to put the hurt on certain sections of the population but then when there was a quick howl of anguish the hurt was spread differently? Does it suggest that the population needs to express its displeasure with economic policies as forcefully and as quickly because politicians are out of touch with the people's desires?


My admiration for politicians will not rise one iota after this escapade and no amount of head in handery will make me any more sympathetic as they get themselves out of the pickle jar into which they and the country had been plunged. While I wish them and the rest of Jamaica a merry Christmas, it's hard to see that they will be bright.