Finance and Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke has announced that an eight-storey building is to be constructed to replace the overcrowded Cross Roads Tax Office in Kingston.
The state-of-the-art facility will be built at a cost of $2.3 billion on lands Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) has acquired from the owners of the nearby Nuttall Hospital. The construction forms part of the $11 billion expenditure programme that has been embarked on by the TAJ over the next three years to modernise, upgrade and construct tax offices islandwide.
Clarke, who was opening the 2024/25 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, said “The Cross Roads Tax Office is out of space. Sometimes the lines extend outside the building, unto the side walk, and bend around the building. This is not acceptable”.
The finance minister indicated the new building will house a full service tax office and business centre, with underground and surface parking, “large enough and spacious enough to accommodate the tax-paying public”.
The finance minister added that the TAJ is presently constructing a tax office in Christiana, Manchester at a cost of $760 million.
“This brand new tax office building is 52 per cent completed and should be 100 per cent completed in the upcoming fiscal year,” Clarke told the House.
He also said $953 million is to be spent to construct a tax office in Mandeville, Manchester. The TAJ has leased the property and designs have been completed. The initial procurement failed and the project is being re-tendered.
“With successful procurement the second time around, construction should start in the upcoming fiscal year,” said Clarke.
He reminded that the Montego Bay Revenue Centre which he first announced in his Budget presentation last year is to be constructed at a cost of $2.4 billion. He shared that the Brown’s Town Tax Office in St Ann is estimated to cost $930 million while the Santa Cruz facility in St Elizabeth is estimated at $920 million.
The Annotto Bay Tax Office in St Mary is slated to undergo renovation and refurbishment in the upcoming fiscal year and the contractor is currently being procured, while the TAJ is building a brand new tax office in Portmore, St Catherine, the project is expected to cost $1.9 billion.
In order to improve the offerings at the Kingston Revenue Service Centre, TAJ acquired the BNS building on King Street in downtown Kingston. Designs have been approved and TAJ is now in the process of engaging a contractor to renovate, upgrade and modernise the building.
“I expect construction to begin in the upcoming fiscal year and the total all-in costs to be approximately J$900 million,” Clarke said.
