Jamaica’s government is considering lowering taxes for JPS!  But will this mean your light bill will go down?

During his opening budget presentation, Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke said he’d consider lowering the tax rate for Jamaica’s monopoly energy provider, JPS.

BUT… he said they’d only do it IF JPS can guarantee that this will reduce our light bills.

The Minister made the comment after he announced that the government is lowering taxes for Independent Power Providers (IPPs). 

IPPs produce electricity and sell it to JPS for them to distribute. There are about nine IPPs in Jamaica, and JPS gets about one-third of all its electricity from them.

IPPs currently pay Corporate Income Tax of 33.3%.

But the government is slashing that to 25% for those who produce at least 75% of their energy from renewable sources such as solar and wind. For example, Wigton Wind Farm, Content Solar, and Paradise Park. 

Minister Clarke says they’re doing this to promote growth and investment in renewables.

FYI, Jamaica has a target to produce 50% of all its energy from renewables by 2030.

That’s only six years away!  Not sure how close we are now to meeting that target, but it does seem ambitious.

But back to JPS.

Obviously, they’re not an Independent Power Producer, and they don’t produce mainly from renewable sources.

So why should the government cut their taxes too?

Well, like the Minister said, they’ll only consider it if JPS can guarantee that it will result in everyone’s light bill going down.

So the ball is in their court.

Hey, JPS!  Can you give us that guarantee?

We’re definitely going to need it, because like I told you in a previous video, it looks like oil prices are going up this year, which will mean higher electricity prices.

And that’s the bottom line!