Minister of Finance, Dr. Peter Phillips withdraws ATM WithDrawal Tax - Wealthier Class Big Stick quells the Perfect Storm for Mobile Money and Cashless Society

“We take pride in knowing we are an administration that listens”

Minister of Finance, Dr. Peter Phillips closing comments in the 2014-2015 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives w.r.t. the withdrawal of the ATM Withdrawal Levy on Wednesday April 30^th 2014

Looks like the powers-that-be weren’t feeling the ATM Bank Withdrawal Tax as described in my blog article entitled “Min. of Finance, Dr. Peter Phillips to implement ATM Withdrawal Tax - Jamaica's Unbanked means Cashless Society coming with Digicel Mobile Money”.

Instead they, the Commercial and Private Banks, Lending Institutions and Investment Firms, decided to use their Big Stick hold over the Minister of Finance, Dr. Peter Phillips, to force him to withdraw this very controversial Tax. At least that’s what the Cartoon suggests really happened!

This as he’s now withdrawn the ATM Withdrawal Tax (or Levy if you prefer!) and has decided to replace it instead with two alternatives as explained in “Bank withdrawal tax proposal withdrawn”, Published Wednesday April 30, 2014 4:14 pm by Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter, The Jamaica Gleaner.

With regards to the “big stick”, I’m of course referring to the Banks and Investment firms, many of which have members of High-society who are Board Members or have a deeper interest in their profitability. Apparently they reminded the Government of their Loan obligations as well as money they were owed and possibly may have threatened all-out legal action along with other form of action.

And what are those two measures? They are as follows:

1.      15% tax on all insurance premiums paid by Jamaican residents to non-residents

2.      16.5% GCT being applied to imported Services

There an Alcoholic Beverage Tax that coming and other Gory Details relating to a removal of the Tax on Hybrid Motor Vehicles, something about which I’ve written about as being necessary as stated in my blog article entitled “Minister of Justice Mark Golding Environmental Policy changes to Vehicle Importation - All-Electric Vehicles and Flex-Fuel Vehicles put Used Car Dealers on The Guilt Trip”.

In more good news too, custom duties on Phablets has been removed as stated in “No Custom Duties on Phablets”, published April 22, 2014 By Alecia Smith-Edwards, The Jamaica Information Service. So that’s good news for those obsessed with the super-large smartphones as stated in my blog article entitled “Samsung Galaxy Note III is an excellent alternative to the Apple iPhone - Phablet competition from the HTC One Max and the Sony Xperia Z Ultra signals long lasting trend”.

I’m not interested.

What has me personally upset is that the GOJ just threw away the perfect opportunity to not only tax the SUV Driving wealthy in Jamaica but also to usher in Mobile Money, making it mandatory and Cash Transactions illegal.

This 2014/2014 Sectoral Budget Debate has certainly been Dramatic!