Finance Minister Audley Shaw has little choice but to aggressively drive for improved tax compliance if the government is to meet its fiscal target over the next few years, according to tax expert Ethlyn Norton-Coke.

And like others, Norton-Coke argues that going after tax dodgers should be accompanied by the simplification of the Jamaican tax system, including rolling the various statutory payments into a single tax.

Norton-Coke remarks, in a speech to the Jamaica Guild of Artists this week, came as Shaw prepared to say in Parliament tomorrow how he will fund the $489 billion budget he proposed nearly a fortnight ago.

In nominal terms that budget is over 20 per cent higher than the one presented by his predecessor Omar Davies a year ago. But when inflation is taken into account, the real increase is around five per cent.

Shaw has said that he will not raise new taxes this year, but will have to keep a promise to lower the fiscal deficit of 5.5 per cent of GDP to 4.2 per cent.

"The reality is that the government will be going on an aggressive drive to collect taxes in order to fill the gap in the budget that presently exists," Norton-Coke said.