Members of the Government refuted suggestions that vehicle licensing fees were set to increase dramatically as made in a Cayman Net News article on Wednesday.
Leader of Government Business Kurt Tibbetts appeared on two radio talk shows to refute the claims on Wednesday and Financial Secretary Kenneth Jefferson also appeared on one of the shows with him.
Mr. Tibbetts called the headline ‘sensationalism’.
Under the headline ‘Vehicle Licensing to Rise?’ in the Wednesday (8 February) edition, Cayman Net News claimed to have been informed by an unnamed source, purportedly ‘close to government,’ that there are planned increases in a number of categories of vehicle licence fees.
However, Financial Secretary Kenneth Jefferson said that no decisions have been taken on any new or increased revenue measures for Government, and whenever any increase in charges are to be taken they are decided upon in consultation with the private sector.
Mr. Jefferson said that he explained this procedure to a reporter speaking on behalf of the newspaper.
‘I made clear that no decisions on new revenue measures were taken, and any suggestion that Government had indeed decided to increase vehicle licensing fees is incorrect,’ the Financial Secretary said.
Mr. Jefferson said that reporter had called on the afternoon of Monday, 6 February, and he returned the call early Tuesday morning before entering Cabinet.
‘I told him that Government had not decided on any particular new revenue measure at this point in time,’ Mr. Jefferson said in explaining his response to a query from the reporter about rumours that Government was considering increases to vehicle licensing fees.
Mr. Jefferson said he explained in a 15-minute discussion with the reporter Government’s need for an added $25 million in revenue during the next budget year to support financing of construction of new schools, new roads, and providing equipment and additional resources to the police.
Mr. Jefferson told the reporter that in finding ways to raise this money Government remains committed to a consultative process.
‘I also explained to him that in a meeting with the Private Sector Consultative Council in late January, Government shared the new register of revenue that lists all of government revenue sources, and invited them to come back with suggestions on areas for new revenue measures.’
Members of the private sector are scheduled to present their suggestions to the Financial Secretary in mid-February.
Following publication of the Cayman Net News article, the Financial Secretary said he phoned the reporter and was told it had been impossible to include the information conveyed during their discussion the day before.
‘I expressed my disappointment with the article simply because it was untrue,’ Mr. Jefferson said. ‘I told him printing the article was unfortunate because it had created a lot of anxiety in the public.’
The reporter indicated that a clarifying news item was prepared, and Mr. Jefferson expressed the hope that the clarification gets front page exposure equal to that of Tuesday’s inaccurate article.
During the press conference to announce the launch of the Freedom of Information public awareness campaign, Mr. Tibbetts said that with Freedom of Information comes a certain responsibility by the press, and he cautioned against the practice of making a headline based on an anonymous source and then putting a question mark behind the headline because of uncertainty.
Related Videos
