The Ministry of Finance and the Public Service is reporting improvements in Tax Administration Jamaica’s (TAJ) voluntary compliance matrix for the first quarter of the 2017/18 fiscal year, between April and June. According to the 2017/18 Fiscal Policy Paper Interim Report, upticks were recorded in taxpayer registration, on-time payment rates, and audits conducted. The document, which was tabled in the...

Finance and the Public Service Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw, says the Government plans to engage the Jamaica Productivity Centre (JPC) in identifying ways to spur increased workforce output. Mr. Shaw, who was responding to questions from Central Kingston Member of Parliament, Rev. Ronald Thwaites, during last week’s sitting of the House of Representatives, said productivity has been in “persistent decline”...

President and Chief Executive Officer of First Global Bank, Mariame McIntosh Robinson, is encouraging small business operators to take advantage of the positive signs in the economy to invest in the expansion of their operations. These indicators include a stable currency, low inflation, lower energy costs, strong net international reserves, heightened business and consumer confidence, and multilateral agency support, together...

The application deadline for the Inaugural Public Sector Corporate Governance Awards has been extended to Friday, October 6. The awards are open to all public bodies governed by the Public Bodies Management and Accountability Act, inclusive of statutory bodies, regulatory bodies, authorities, commissions and government-owned entities. Corporate Governance Trainer/Consultant, Ann-Marie Rhoden, speaking at a JIS ‘Think Tank’, today (September 29),...

Finance and the Public Service Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw, says a comprehensive public sector transformation plan is being finalised for tabling in the Houses of Parliament. He said the document, which is being prepared by the Public Sector Transformation Implementation Unit, will provide full details of the State entities to be divested, merged, subsumed into Central Government or closed.  Eighty-four...

Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) will be facilitating business this Saturday (September 30), with the opening of select offices islandwide. The locations include Spanish Town, Constant Spring, May Pen, Mandeville, St. Ann’s Bay, Savanna-la-Mar and Montego Bay, and they will operate from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The Portmore tax office will also be open; however, it will not close until...

The Government is to provide additional funds for disaster mitigation in the 2017/18 Supplementary Budget, which Finance and the Public Service Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw, says is slated to be tabled in the House of Representatives shortly. This, he says, is necessary, as the initial $491 million allocated in the 2017/18 Estimates of Expenditure has been exhausted, consequent on adverse...