Jamaica - Promote, Review, Invigorate, Develop, and Energize the Economic Environment (PRIDE)

In early 2010 USAID awarded the Jamaica Promote, Review, Invigorate, Develop, and Energise the Economic Environment (PRIDE) task order under the Global Business, Trade and Investment (GBTI) II IQC to the CARANA Corporation. The five components of the program are:

• Tax Policy and Administration;
• Licensing and Other Competitiveness Areas;
• Access to Credit for Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises;
• Legislative Process; and
• Land Policy and Administration.

As a member of CARANA's team, Crown Agents USA (CA-USA) will lead the tax policy and administration component of the program. In this role CA-USA will:

• Assist in revamping of the General Consumption Tax, reviewing and eliminating tax holidays and exemptions that do not attract investment, and promoting additional tax policy reforms deemed necessary. This will be done through technical assistance to the Ministry of Finance and Public Service
• Coordinate efforts to ensure that tax policy changes are in tune with the work carried out in this sector by other actors - including the European Union, the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank.
• Design and execute a plan to educate Jamaican stakeholders through a variety of methods. These approaches include events to train legislative, judicial and executive officials and provide continuing education.
• Develop materials that clarify how the changes in taxation will happen. These materials would be distributed throughout the Tax Administration. Materials for the taxpayers would also be produced. Similarly, a website outlining the changes in taxation will be designed to keep all these materials available, accessible and up to date.

The Crown Agents tax reform portfolio includes projects in the Bahamas, Croatia, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, India, Ghana, Kyrgyzstan, and Tanzania. In Jamaica Crown Agents provided an IT solution to a tax administration modernisation project funded by the World Bank in the early 2000s. The IT system installed in Jamaica is still in use and helps revenue officials in handling 1.8 million taxpayers and 183,000 transactions per month.