Permanent Secretary Urges Revenue Agents to Boost Collection

Permanent Secretary of the former Ministry of Local Government, Devon Rowe, has urged revenue agents working under the mandate of the Property Tax Special Project, to boost collection of property taxes, which up to March 2006 had total arrears of $6 billion. At a Project meeting to review their first year’s performance, and discuss strategies to maximize collections and improve the management of property taxes, held at the Jamaica Conference Centre on September 28, Mr. Rowe told the inland revenue agents that while collections and compliance were showing an upward trend, they needed to keep the momentum going to further broaden their collection base. He pointed out that the target won’t be achieved overnight, but “over time the work that you’ll be doing will be contributing to that immensely.” He informed that the cost for repairs in the parochial road network, also stood at $6 billion.
The Permanent Secretary said his call for the Project to apply urgency in collections is propelled by Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Minister of State for local government matters, Robert Montague’s desire to expedite the local government reform agenda, “much quicker than it has been moving.”
He said part of this agenda would see the devolving of much of the former ministry’s responsibilities to parish councils. “That improvement in property taxes is essentially to assist the financial base of the parish councils and to facilitate services that they have to offer,” he noted.
“Why this project is so important, is simply because having all those responsibilities, they will need to have the resources to implement (them),” he pointed out.
Mr. Rowe reminded that the local government sector and the parish councils relied on the revenue from property taxes to provide garbage collection, to repair roads, for street lighting, water supply delivery and a range of other services. “In addition to all of that, the local government reform is moving towards providing greater autonomy to the parish councils, and with that autonomy, comes greater responsibility. As a result of which, there is going to be greater accountability and transparency in their operations,” he explained.
Adding that parish councils and citizens were depending on them to collect the $6 billion, he encouraged the tax collectors to “push” towards achieving this target, so as to enable an improved and enhanced local government system. “If through your efforts revenues are up, then the prospect of local government reform, in its advanced stages of implementation, will be greatly enhanced,” Mr. Rowe said.
In the meantime, Deputy Commissioner of the Inland Revenue Department, Freddie Gordon said that property tax was “a challenging tax to collect,” and told the revenue agents to anticipate another year of challenges in terms of numerous absentee owners and unco-operative lawyers who manage their estates, who sometimes resist providing information requested by the agents.
He urged them to “refine” their collection strategies. “So, we have to work to build an alliance with these people, so that we can get the information to eventually get the taxes from them. In the thrust to collect this $6 billion, we have to bear all these factors in mind,” Mr. Gordon said.
He also reminded that other forces were competing for the same tax dollar, although the law gave the revenue agents the authority to collect these and other taxes.
He suggested that the Department, working with the Project, emulate the private sector and “ensure that we have a visible presence in the marketplace at all times.”
Noting that their task to deliver the product would lessen the strain on central government budget, he advised that, “we need to consolidate our efforts, put our heads together and deal with the collections.”
The Property Tax Special Project was set up a year ago to encourage property owners to pay outstanding taxes.