Find creative ways to raise revenue

I concur, for it is just that if we live off the resources the State provides, such as infrastructure etc, we should pay our fair share for that upkeep.

But there are issues here, the first and foremost being one of fairness.

Is it fair for the average middle class citizen and others similarly affected to be subjected to in an increase in property tax from under $300, as in my case, to now near $1,600, an increase of over 500 percent? This begs the question as to whether the citizen should be made to prop up a now depleted Treasury arising out of mismana geme nt by inept and often corrupt politicians charged with managing the public purse.

Should this taxation of the people for revenue-making purposes become a trend, as it well might be, considering that the Government has few revenue-making structures outside the normal Public Service framework, with the exception perhaps of the National Lotteries Control Board, is this not alarming where this might lead? Possibly into a continuous stream of taxation, direct and indirect, on goods and services, penalties and the like and, for all you know, straight into our savings in the bank? This is not alarmist by any means, for the Government must find money to run the country, and in the virtual absence of same, there is only one place to turn: the people.

The Government must find creative ways other than the people to generate revenue, and a good place to start is to make a concerted effort to recover monies stolen from the Treasury and follow it up on the macro level to avoid situations like the BP fiasco and encourage investment in oil and gas-related projects and boost agricultural development.

On the community level it can help to create greater self-sufficiency by incentivising smallscale agriculture and entrepreneurship and cottage industries, minimising the reliance on the State.

Taxing the people to earn revenue as an all-embracing economic strategy, according to one British politician, is like trying to lift a bucket while you are standing in it.

DR ERROL BENJAMIN via email