KINGSTON, Ja­maica-A bill en­cour­ag­ing over­seas com­pa­nies to es­tab­lish their head of­fices in Ja­maica, and to ex­empt of­fi­cers of such com­pa­nies from the pay­ment of in­come tax, was passed in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives on Tues­day. The bill-The In­come Tax (Amend­ment) Act-was pi­lot­ed by Min­is­ter of Fi­nance and Plan­ning Dr Pe­ter Phillips.

In his re­marks, Phillips said the bill ex­empts per­sons who are not res­i­dents of Ja­maica and who per­form group head of­fice ac­tiv­i­ties from the pay­ment of in­come tax. "The point to note here is that not all ac­tiv­i­ties of all for­eign cor­po­ra­tions are be­ing ex­empt by this Bill.

"The pur­pose of the bill is to pro­vide in­cen­tives for large in­ter­na­tion­al cor­po­ra­tions op­er­at­ing in mul­ti­ple ju­ris­dic­tions to move their ac­tiv­i­ties to Ja­maica. We are not giv­ing up any­thing that we now have, rather it is seek­ing to at­tract ad­di­tion­al eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ties to the coun­try and ex­pand the pool of tax over time gen­er­al­ly, by virtue of these ac­tiv­i­ties," the fi­nance min­is­ter said.

He said en­ti­ty ap­proved will be sub­ject­ed to an ap­proval process where it will need to meet the cri­te­ria for car­ry­ing out group head­quar­ter ac­tiv­i­ties, be­ing in­cor­po­rat­ed in Ja­maica and en­sur­ing that at least 30 per cent of its staff mem­bers are Ja­maicans.

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