Every time I think Government can't possibly get worse, it always manages to raise, make that lower, the bar on me.

These new taxes are intended to raise money Government needs to meet its budget requirements for the next financial year. Through bungling of one sort or the other, or in reality, fear of doing what needs to be done - which is cutting the public sector of billions of dollars in wages - the rest of us will have to brace for a raft of taxes that are not only going to force Jamaicans to dig even deeper into their empty pockets, but are also going to kill many businesses.

I don't have enough space to get into all the details, but let me start with this simple fact. Most businesses are struggling with the high cost of energy, which makes the goods they produce more expensive, and as such, less competitive. So what does the Government do? It adds to the already high production costs by imposing a higher GCT rate on those using more than 300 kilowatt hours. So what are businesses going to have to do to rein in their operational costs? Most likely, they will have to cut staff.

On Monday this week, Arthur Hall, of The Gleaner wrote a story about Rainforest Traders, just one company that already realises the negative impact. "(Brian) Jardim argued that Rainforest products such as grunt, fish head, and sliced fish are sold within a range which is competitive with chicken or chicken back, but this competitive edge will be lost with the selective introduction of the GCT.

price sensitive

"What you would have is that based on the price, a person would buy chicken for two days and fish for one day and get a nice balance of protein in their diet. Now this will change as we have seen already that the consumer is extremely price sensitive at this time."

Now, Jardim was talking about certain fish products that were competitive with chicken prices as an alternative source of protein for poor Jamaicans. That competitiveness is now gone - and that is the least of their worries. Companies like Rainforest Traders pay millions in electricity bills each month, so now what we will see is a loss of business because of the higher prices while their operational costs are going to jump on account of the 16.5 per cent GCT on power. This is going to force the company to either absorb that cost, or pass it on to the consumer, both here and abroad, in their fragile and very competitive export markets. Either way the company's bottom line is eroded significantly. Is this how you stimulate growth?

And then we have not even got into the virtual double taxation that the company and others like it will suffer with the cost of feed on the increase as well.

Look, I understand the need for the additional taxes - but this is the worst it has ever been, another testimony to the 50 years of mismanagement that Jamaica has had to suffer at the hands of these cretins they call politicians. Lack of vision, lack of ideas, and lack of the requisite will is all they continue to demonstrate.

Meanwhile, we Jamaicans are always left holding the wrong end of the stick.

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