Financing the Jamaican $1.5M threshold

The proposed removal of income tax on  P.A.Y.E workers will now be done in two stages. The first is lifting the ceiling to $1,000,271 per annum come the first of July 2016. This will affect all workers and it is expected that just about a quarter of a million workers will benefit. To plug the $ 12.5 billion dollar hole in the budget as a result of the new tax measures a series of revenue measures have been introduced. These are a $ 7 increase in the Special Consumption Tax (S.C.T) on petrol expected to yield $6.4 billion, a S.C.T regime on liquefied natural gas(LNG) and revision of the Heavy Fuel Oil (H.F.O) regime, expected to yield $1.4 billion. Also there will be an increase in the S.C.T on cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, and cheroots(including substitutes) to $ 14 per stick which will yield $574 million, an increase in Departure Tax ti US$ 35 from the current rate of  US$ 14.53 to yield $5.3 billion. Some persons are saying that the new Income Tax relief is only going to help just over two hundred thousand persons to the detriment of the rest of the population. This is not exactly true as P.A.Y.E workers have dependents too and sometimes they are the only one in the household who is working.There is an argument out there that the government should do something for those workers who will not benefit from the increase in the threshold. I don't know how that will be done. Finally the threshold will be increased to M$1.5 on April 1, 2017.