But Prime Minister Bruce Golding has already indicated that the administration was unlikely to make any concessions to the tourism interests.

"The hoteliers have objected and they have said that it is going to hurt the tourism business. They are to meet with (finance) minister (Audley) Shaw but they are going to have to make a strong case," Golding said recently.

An invisible export

He noted that the argument from some tourism interests is that their sector is an invisible export and should enjoy protection from taxes.

"We will have to look at that very carefully because having gone through the excruciating process we went through to get to the point where we have that (tax) package and any disturbing of it would require some adjustments," Golding added.

He argued that imported services represent a significant amount of taxable activity which have not been taxed in the past.

"There are a lot of consultants who are brought into Jamaica and do not pay any tax ... and we figure that if a local consultant is to pay the GCT, then a foreign consultant should be subject to GCT as well and we are going to hold pretty firm on that," said Golding.

Could become extinct

The prime minister's comments came days after the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) claimed that its members' businesses could be pushed to extinction because of the GCT on foreign services.

President of the JHTA, Wayne Cummings, warned that the tax, which would affect overseas representatives such as consultants, architects, public-relations firms, marketing firms, sales representatives and auditors, could force some entities out of business.

According to Cummings, the move was "an additional burden that would serve as a penalty on the overseas representatives, who the country is dependent on to convince their customers to come to Jamaica".

Payment of tax in respect of imported services

Where a taxable activity consists of the supply of imported services by a person who is not a resident in Jamaica, the recipient of those services shall, for the purposes of that supply, be deemed to be a registered taxpayer and shall pay the tax chargeable in respect of that supply to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue in accordance with the provisions of Section 33(1).