Audrey Tugwell Henry, President & CEO, Scotia Group Jamaica - FILE PHOTO
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With banks facing pressure to lower interest rates on loans, a leading banker is urging the government to take additional steps to reduce the cost of banking in Jamaica.
President and CEO of Scotia Group Jamaica, Audrey Tugwell Henry, reiterated these concerns during the recent Investments and Capital Markets Conference hosted by the Jamaica Stock Exchange.
She stressed that banks currently pay 33.3% on their business operations while other corporate entities pay 25 per cent. Additionally, banks pay an asset tax on total assets held, "which is a disincentive to growth, but banks are growing anyway," she declared.
She also recalled that the Jamaican government had implemented "a temporary measure" to institute an asset tax on banks but has not removed it, "and that creates a burden on the Jamican public because it is a burden that the banks are bearing."
Mrs. Tugwell Henry also raised concern about transactions which attract General Consumption Tax, noting that "every single banking service attracts GCT."
Therefore, she said, "if the Government of Jamaica is interested in taking down the cost to the consumers, those are all things that are within their control, to make banking services and interest rates lower for consumers."
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