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Local
Back to the hedge
By Marston Gordon
Apr 13, 2020, 03:34

Jamaican taxpayers were swindled over $30 billion in the five year period March 2015 to 2020 as special consumption tax (SCT) on fuel, purportedly to hedge against crude oil prices. Originally implemented by Peter Phillips at $7.00 per litre in 2015, Audley Shaw doubled it to $14.00 in 2016. As the first set of contracts for 8 billion barrels of crude fizzled worthless to the tune of $3.3 billion, the hedging stopped but the tax continued(s).


Hog and goat style

Jamaica’s public transportation process is dehumanizing; it contributes in large part to the high rate of motor vehicle accidents, lawlessness, crudeness and criminality.
Honorable speaker played not an insignificant role in encouraging the demise of the Jamaica Omnibus Service (JOS) and Jamaica Railway Corporation (JRC) and its replacement by the minibus scourge (turned route taxi). The travelling public were re-socialized away from punctuality and patience towards short term convenience and instant gratification.


Transport authority of Jamaica

The Transport Authority is the agency charged with the responsibility for the licensing of all public and commercial vehicles and the regulating and monitoring of public transportation in Jamaica.
They (the government) have suppressed the price of fares and limited the carrying capacity of privately owned transport operators yet expect decent and sustainable public transportation. The only option for the operators to have cash pass through their hands is to load commuters on top of each other and entertain them with lewdness. The venture itself is unprofitable as soon the operators realize they are unable to maintain and replaced their vehicles.


Public good

Mass public transportation is a public good and must be funded/subsidized by government. It cannot pay for and by itself and be efficient. It reduces road congestion, pollution, automobile accidents/injuries and death. It is not unlike public health or public school, a benefit to society at large.

Count the number of man hours saved each day when people can get to work uncrushed and on-time and be productive.

This nonsense of able bodied men (mostly) driving around with bills between their fingers and loaders herding passengers into route taxis is a waste of time. Get them into skills training and productive work.


Gas tax

Long time ago there were sources of dedicated transportation revenues like motor vehicle license, registration and transfer fees, then they fell into the sinking (consolidated) fund and sank.

The roughly six billion a year collected under false pretence should be reallocated to build back public transit in Jamaica.


Fuel price hedging

Petrojam is a limited liability company and Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica a statutory body. There is absolutely no reason why a special consumption tax should be charged on fuel to hedge against the price of crude, it’s a business risk that must be borne by the individual business, Taxpayers should not be required to take the risk and the gain if any goes not to them but into the consolidated fund.



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