Four weeks after the Government rejected calls for a reduction in fuel tax, Jamaica Public Service (JPS) President and Chief Executive Officer Michel Gantois lobbed the issue back to the State, arguing that a suspension of the tariff would be of great benefit to Jamaicans.

Gantois made the forehand volley in a no-holds-barred presentation to the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce Breakfast Conversations at Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston Thursday morning.

 

“Taxes make up 16 per cent of your electricity bill. There is a special consumption tax charged on fuel that we and others use to produce electricity. Customers pay a general consumption tax at a standard rate of 15 per cent and then JPS and the other producers of electricity are taxed at the highest possible corporate income tax rate, more than 23 per cent,” Gantois said.

 

“All those taxes are… passed through, for they affect the electricity tariff. To a large degree, JPS is a tax collecting agent for the Government. Suspending or reducing taxes during the current crisis would help customers, especially the most vulnerable,” he argued.

https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/front-page/cut-fuel-tax-jps-says-suspension-of-tariff-will-help-jamaicans-in-current-crisis_248133