Jamaica to benefit from IDB loan
Published:Friday | December 9, 2011 | 12:00 AM
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) says Jamaica will modernise its fiscal administration to improve customs and tax revenue collections and better manage debt and government operations, in a programme partly funded by a US$65-million loan.
"This programme will support the Government of Jamaica's strategy to achieve a sustainable fiscal position by strengthening the Ministry of Finance's institutional capacity. It will also improve taxpayers' compliance and revenue yields through more efficient administration and collection procedures, and will help improve debt management and government payments operations," the IDB said in a statement out of Washington Wednesday.
It said that in order to achieve its objectives, the programme will focus on four components including the modernisation of tax administration, customs operations, debt management system, and central treasury management system.
"The programme is expected to achieve its goals by 2016 through a decline in the gap between actual and potential collection of the general consumption tax. With the project, the gap is expected to fall to 36 per cent from 45 per cent," the IDB said.
It also said the project will contribute to reducing the percentage of large and medium taxpayers that fail to file their tax forms from six to two per cent of the total filings.
"On the customs side, efficiency will increase the adjusted monetary value of post-clearance audit assessments and raise the percentage of cargo manifests and import/export declarations processed electronically in advance from 57 per cent to 100 per cent."
The IDB loan is for a 20-year period, with a grace period of five years.