Business
Haiti looking to raising taxes to fund education
With a surcharge on wire transfers and international phone calls into Haiti generating only between US$40 million and US$50 million for education, Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe said Monday the country is moving to increase taxes to raise $100 million to make “a big difference in the education system in Haiti.”
The Haiti lower chamber of deputies has already approved the creation of the National Education Fund, and the government is awaiting a vote in the Senate.
In approving the fund’s creation, Haiti lawmakers would be agreeing to a government-imposed surcharge on the sales of alcohol, tobacco and a recently re-launched national lottery, as well as 2 percent take on the profits at a state-owned bank, Banque Nationale de Credit (BNC).
The money would go into the special education fund regulated by a board of directors and used to finance the construction of 200 schools, refurbishing of 2,000, and training and salary increases for thousands of teachers from primary school to state-owned universities, Lamothe said.
The education fund is part of President Michel Martelly’s focus on sending more Haitian children to school tuition-free. Almost immediately after his May 2011 inauguration, Martelly announced that Haiti would be charging a US$1.50 tax on wire transfers and US$0.5 minute on all incoming international phone calls into the country to fund free tuition.