Sabrina Gordon, Business Reporter

An officer from the Spanish Town Revenue Department records data on a laptop that urges people to pay their property tax during a mobile campaign by the Portmore Municipal Council and the Spanish Town Revenue Department at the Portmore Mall in March. Tax administration will be establishing a revenue centre in Portmore, St Catherine. - File

A NEW tax collection centre is to be established in the municipality of Portmore, St Catherine, in office space that previously housed investment banker Dehring Bunting and Golding Limited, but which has now been leased by the Tax Administration Services Department (TASD).

But this location will be a temporary home for the new revenue centre until the roll out of a project now in the design phase for an islandwide expansion of tax collection points.

"A long-term solution, in terms of a permanent home for the collectorate, is being investigated," said Meris Haughton, director of public relations at the TASD.

Expansion project

The TASD is acquiring land in the vicinity of the Informatics Park in the Portmore town centre in order to build the permanent centre.

The TASD, which has responsibility for property services and procurement for tax administration, says in three years it would have relocated some nine centres to larger facilities or expand the current facilities, offering taxpayers more comfortable settings to do business with the Government.

The plan includes bigger collectorates in Cross Roads and the Customs House in Kingston; Christiana and Mandeville in Manchester; Morant Bay, St Thomas; Moneague, St Ann; Annotto Bay, St Mary; Old Harbour, St Catherine; and Savanna-la-Mar in Westmoreland.

"These offices will either be relocated or expanded as the location allows," said Haughton.

Budgetary constraints

The size of the investment in each centre will be determined by the amount of business they transact and their contribution to the treasury, but the total cost of the project, says the tax department, will be determined by budgetary provisions by the Ministry of Finance.

No funds were specifically identified in this year's budget for the project, but finance has set aside $400 million for building upgrades - $266 million for the Jamaica Conference Centre, the rest unspecified.

Current data on the size of the collectionsat each centre was not immediately available but information released by Dr Omar Davies in his final budget presentation as finance minister.