Moontown

Denis Kellman’s column

The Debate

July 15, 2005

Barbados is becoming a very complex country in which to live for its citizens. It is no doubt that Barbados is the paradise of the world, but all of this comes at a high price. Thos of us who have money can dictate the pace.

A couple years ago, I told the Members of Parliament that we were so caught up in globalization that we as a country were better at catering to the world than we were at catering to our own. These remarks were taken lightly and serious attention was not paid.

Now, we are seeing the value of our real estate on the world market and those persons who were at the forefront of the escalating values are now behaving as if they are not aware of the transformation of the little gem.

A few years ago, if you offered to sell someone piece of land in St. Lucy, they would laugh at you. Today, it is the most sought after land by those persons who have foresight. We welcome all those persons who understand and appreciate what others failed to recognize.

St. Lucy is so unique that it is the only parish that can have an airport and seaport at the same time, tourism, agriculture, manufacturing and financial services. These qualities should be appreciated and it is time that we follow the leader and get our full benefits. We must decide whether it is in our interest to remain with Rural or switch to Urban so that we may be able to access the funds which were passed on from Urban to Rural to no avail.

Somebody should tell some chairmen that a decision where to have lunch is personal, but building a house for an old lady is not, especially when that lady is not a politician, but simply a rural lady who has been able to benefit from a programme started by the Arawak Cement Plant, Habitat and Urban.

If persons want to be political with the Member of Parliament for St. Lucy, that is one thing, but when it comes to the welfare of a constituent, whether B or D, it means that the Member of Parliament would have to take the battle to the personality, who enjoys hope and is now depriving Mrs. O’Neale of hers.

Please stop playing politics with my constituents. If you care not or want to carry out your mandate, send the money back to Urban. These minor issues create unnecessary pressure for politicians, who are blamed for things done out of political spite by persons who are over ambitious and would sometime seek to flex their muscles on persons who do not like dealing with persons who continue to pick fights with the wrong person. Please stop it before I have to use my guttaperk.

These things create headaches for the poor and we cannot afford to go to the doctor and pay him or her $40 for a visit for him or her to recommend phensic, whizz or panadol and also pay a fee for filling the prescription.

Does this make sense?

Can you imagine being mandated by law to go to the doctor for every headache that you could have gone to a shop in the village to get relief? Can you imagine what would happen when all the polyclinics and the hospital have to deal with this increased demand? Can you tell me who will pay the bill for these nuisance visits and prescriptions?

Last Friday, I wrote about the qualities of St. Lucy. On Saturday, I heard the Prime Minister speaking about the qualities of St. Peter and how the cricketing problem could be solved by turning to the north for a solution, a point made by me at North Stars a couple weeks ago being reiterated by the Prime Minister.

If only we had shifted the idea of the new complex to the north, we would have helped to strengthen the case for real development.

(Denis Kellman is the Member of Parliament for St. Lucy, Barbados)

BLACK EYE PEAS AND RICE; MACARONI PIE

SWEET POTATO PIE; STEW YAM

BAKED PORK; BAKED CHICKEN

FRIED SNAPPER; FRIED KING FISH

GRILLED KING FISH; STEAMED VEGETABLES

BEEF STEW; PLAIN GRAVY

COLE SLAW; TOSSED SALAD

Jamaica Gleaner

Fighting an expanding fiscal deficit, Minister of Finance Audley Shaw said Thursday that businesses should brace for reform of the system of waivers at Customs that deny the Treasury billions in revenue, as Jamaica plots its medium-term strategy to weather the ongoing financial crisis.

The waivers currently eat away 50 per cent of customs revenue that should flow to the Treasury.

“For every $1 billion earned through Customs, we give away $500 million,” said Shaw at a forum hosted by Scotiabank Jamaica on the supplementary budget, adding that tax reform was coming to the island in a “fundamental way”.

Higher than stated

Commissioner of Customs Danville Walker later suggested the ratio of waivers to actual taxes collected tended to be even by higher than the minister said.

The broad reforms and the plotting of a medium-term strategy are important targets that, if not addressed, could derail Jamaica’s hopes for a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a US$1.2-billion borrowing facility.

A team from the IMF is due in Jamaica again next week, Shaw said, as the negotiations continue, with expectations that the Fund will give its final nod to the facility next month.

The Inter-American Develop-ment Bank (IDB) is currently doing a study of tax expenditures in Jamaica - the findings are to be presented to Government in November - which will be used to guide the reforms to be implemented.

Walker told the Financial Gleaner that the customs waivers granted are almost as large as the revenue collected by his department.

But for this fiscal year to September, waivers and incentives - including those granted for car import duties - were valued at $8 billion, amounting to 23 per cent of the $35 billion in tax collections, according to figures supplied by Customs.

As a proportion of tax and non-tax revenue earned by Customs, the waivers amounted to 18 per cent. Customs did not disclose the data on the waivers granted in 2008, but collections in the same April to September period then amounted to $43 billion.

Reform waivers

“In my view, we definitely need to reform waivers,” said the commissioner.

“Every waiver represents an interest group who, when defending themselves, speak of the good of the nation. Every group which asks for preferential treatment will speak of the benefits to protecting their industry. At some point, however, you will come to what you can afford, whether the waiver involves sugar, the hotel sector or any other group. We are at a point where there are very few waivers which we can afford.”

International trade taxes contributed $67 billion to the Treasury last fiscal year.

The finance ministry forecasts a more robust $88 billion this year, but the taxes were already underperforming by close to $4 billion at August.

Custom’s duty, one of five international taxes collected at the ports, represented $7.6 billion of the remittances at last breakout of the data up to August, and was about $1.5 billion off target.

Walker said that reform would create a more equitable playing ground for all. Anomalies to be addressed, he said, include sugar imports brought in under the guise of raw material inputs for manufacturing, but which end up being sold unprocessed on the market.

Close a loophole

If the duty charged on sugar as raw material and sugar for retail distribution was narrowed, it would, Walker indicated, remove the incentive for chicanery and close a loophole, to the benefit of honest importers as well as the Treasury.

“There is a need for reform which will help with collection and make the system more equitable,” he stated.

Shaw said under the proposed tax reform measures being considered, the new system would reward value-added industries, such as food processors, while others who now benefit from the convoluted system would be left out in the cold.

“We want to lay out a red carpet

for those with the wish to earn through high productivity,” said the minister.

Jamaica does US$250 million (J$21.75 billion) of business in processed foods, while the industry had actual potential of US$2.5 billion (J$217.5 billion), Shaw said, but did not cite the source of his figures.

Shaw suggested that waivers would be cut but did not specify a target.

Jamaica Gleaner

Radio news editor for The Gleaner/Power106 FM, Ceila Morgan (left), presents Novelette Bryan (right) of the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce, with a certificate of participation for completing ‘The Practice of Public Relations’ workshop. Bryan was also the winner of the Best Three-Minute Speech for which she received a LIME phone and an MP3 player. - Contributed“Excellent”, “exemplary” and “exceptional” were some of the words used by a wide range of participants from across corporate Jamaica and the public sector, who completed a two-day workshop, entitled ‘The Practice of Public Relations’, on October 16 and 17 at Courtleigh Hotel and Suites in New Kingston. The course was taught by pioneer in the field and executive director of Corporate Affairs Research and Advertising (CARA) Limited, Elaine Commissiong.

The workshop, which was a quick guide into the discipline, focused on writing news releases, captioning photographs, writing the three-minute speech, including introducing guest speakers, preparing special events and strategic planning and proposal writing.

Combined teaching methods

Commissiong employed a combination of lecturing, lively discussions and interactive class activities to teach these lessons.

Commissiong also had special guests at the workshop. Radio news editor at The Gleaner/Power 106 FM, Ceila Morgan, appeared on the first day to speak about what the media expects from public relations (PR) practitioners.

“One view from a journalistic standpoint is that PR practitioners are merely whitewashing agents, paid to disguise what is really happening in a company,” she said. “That’s how we see you! I’m sorry!” She urged the participants to follow the principles of news - the ‘who, what, when, where, why and how’ - when writing their press releases.

Best practises

She also gave the participants insight into the inner workings of media houses and advised them on how to best communicate with such entities.

On the second day, managing director of Office Outlet, Bradley Mahfood, provided a demonstration of the use of one of his products, the Resin Steel-Binding system by the Belgian company, Unibind.

Both guests assisted Commis-siong at the end of the workshop with the presentation of certificates to the participants, who openly expressed their joy.

Opal Davis, of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), who spoke on behalf of the “graduating class of 2009″, thanked Commissiong and requested that a follow-up course be held soon.

The workshop was organised by CARA Limited and sponsored by The Gleaner Company, LIME and Office Outlet.

Jamaica Gleaner
Kimesha Walters, Gleaner Writer
Vivian Crawford (second left), executive director, the Institute of Jamaica (IOJ), entertains Dr Don Baker (left), political officer at the US Embassy in St Andrew, and Katherine Rafaniello (right) and Bianca Obllins, the embassy’s vice-consuls, at the IOJ yesterday. - Norman Grindley/Chief Photographer

AN AMERICAN political officer is lauding Jamaica for creating a Charter of Rights Bill, saying it was healthy for an emerging economy to recognise the rights of its citizens. The officer also pointed to the possibility of an improved relationship with the United States given the push for a new charter.

Dr Don Baker says the United States has a similar policy, and he suspects that the Jamaican format will be similar.

However, he noted that there is no single way of being a democracy.

Baker revealed that despite tarnishes due to crime and violence, the country has maintained a good report in the US Embassy’s annual human-rights reports, specifically in the area democracy.

“Jamaica respects the human rights of its citizens, for the most part. It has some challenges in terms of crime and those things but we’re hopeful that Jamaica will continue to address these issues,” Baker told The Gleaner after a presentation at the Institute of Jamaica (IOJ) yesterday.

The political officer is responsible for drafting the annual human-rights report at the US Embassy. To complete that report, Dr Baker looks at several factors such as the rule of law, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and religious liberty. These, he says, provide an assessment for how well Jamaica is doing in providing for its citizens’ human rights.

Baker said the importance of the report can be seen in the reactions of countries, such as China, to negative comments.

“It’s not as a direct result of the report, but countries that are not democratic do not respect the rights of their citizens, don’t have as close ties with the US as with democratic nations,” Baker explained.

“Oftentimes, there might be sanctions or penalties for countries that abuse their citizens or don’t recognise their rights,” said Baker.

Closing guantanamo a strong message

Additionally, he told The Gleaner the US had its own issues in the past.

“We’re not perfect when it comes to human rights, but our history of focusing on our failures and trying to make amends for our failures is what drives us to make human rights so much a part of our foreign policy.”

He said the Barack Obama administration was committed to a strong human-rights message in its foreign policy, and part of that could be seen in his plan to close Guantanamo Bay.

The programme yesterday was dubbed ‘Human Rights in the 21st Century: an Opportunity for Dialogue’ and was arranged by the IOJ, and the newest arm of the US Embassy, the Speakers Bureau.

Patricia Attkisson, first secretary of that bureau, says organisations can make requests for embassy personnel to address any group and that services would be provided free of cost.

THE JAMAICAN Government could be called on to pay more than J$133 million to American Airlines as part of a revenue-guarantee airlift agreement signed last November.

American Airlines inked the deal with Jamaican authorities to service the Miami, Dallas and Chicago routes to Montego Bay.

As part of the accord, the United States carrier would transport thousands of passengers to Jamaica.

However, there was a decline in bookings and the airline recorded a shortfall of US$1.5 million up to July 31 this year.

This was confirmed by Lionel Reid, executive director of Jamaica Vacations Limited (JAMVAC), at a meeting of Parliament’s Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) on Wednesday.

“It can be called (on),” he told committee members. The Tourism En-hancement Fund had provided letters of credit to secure the agreement with the US carrier on behalf of JAMVAC. The total guarantee was set at US$3 million.

A document provided by the Ministry of Tourism highlighted a deficit of over US$1 million (more than J$94 million) for the Dallas operation while the financial out-turn for Miami showed a loss of just over US$570,000 (approximately J$51 million).

However, the airline had a surplus of US$181,107 (J$16.1 million) for its Chicago operation.

Chairman of the PAAC, Dr Wykeham McNeill, observing that the loss for Miami and Dallas occurred during the best of the tourism season, questioned whether the country could lose the entire US$3 million that was guaranteed.

Acknowledging that this was possible, Reid indicated that the country had “no choice” at the time it entered into this arrangement with American Airlines.

He told the committee that at the time the deal was signed, the airline was about to withdraw its services from Dallas. “They were also going to scale down significantly from Miami if we had not entered into these arrange-ments at that time,” Reid explained.

The JAMVAC executive said a reduction in the number of flights would have had a negative impact on the sector, resulting in a sharp cut in room occupancy and declining revenues to the Government.

Pressed for further detail about the implications of the loss by the airline, director of the Jamaica Tourist Board, John Lynch, said the agreement would end early next month. He said at that time “a full accounting will take place”.

He said American Airlines informed the minister recently that it would continue to service these routes “on its own” into the winter tourist season.

Lynch stressed that there would be no disruption in the service to Jamaica.

According to the JTB director, the agreement with American Airlines was “probably one of the best investments” the country made.

However, committee member Ronald Thwaites wanted Lynch to support his claim with figures. “I am Thomas, I need proof,” he insisted.

McNeill also queried revenue guarantees in the sum of CAN$360,900 to Transat, an airline out of Canada. He questioned the need for this arrangement contending that Air Canada and Air Jamaica serviced routes out of that country.

Responding, the JAMVAC head said the support for Transat was for new markets. “They have gone into London, Ontario, taking flights out of Victoria, British Columbia, Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria; for the first time we’ll have direct service from British Columbia. They have put in place an additional 18,000 seats for the winter season,” he said.

Late last year, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett had said that despite putting up the money for the American Airline guarantee, the deal might not cost the country “one cent”.