Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter

THE PROPOSAL to introduce a gas tax, which was mooted by Transport and Works Minister Mike Henry, has received support from Wayne Chen, one of the island's leading businessmen.

Henry has suggested that the tax be implemented as a means of raising funds to carry out infrastructural projects.

But Chen believes the gas tax would serve the country better if it were used to fund social security.

"I know it is a volatile subject and we are afraid to put (the tax) on because we are afraid that people will march in the streets; but this is something that the Government and Opposition would have to get together on," Chen said.

Chen, who is president of the Jamaica Employers' Federation, has argued for the tax to be part of a massive reform of the tax system.

Step in the right direction

Last week, an informed Sunday Gleaner source disclosed that Government was considering increasing general consumption tax and reducing income tax.

Chen said that an income-tax reduction would be a step in the right direction, especially because only 350,000 of the 1.1 million persons who should pay income tax comply with the law.

"Increase the income-tax threshold (or tax-free level) to $10,000 per week and implement a gas tax. That gas tax has to pay for the social intervention. It has to pay for the subsidy in bus fares and taxi fares," Chen argued.

Labour Minister Pearnel Charles last month announced that he would be summoning stakeholders to his ministry to discuss ways of funding a comprehensive social-security programme.

In addition, Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller has called for a structured revision of the establishment of social-security programmes.

Simpson Miller, a former minister who had portfolio responsibility for labour and social security, has said that the time has come for the establishment of a central social-security system.

"We need a modern social-security system in Jamaica and I think it is time for us to begin to look at it," Simpson Miller told trade unionists at the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions' fourth congress two weeks ago.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com