Custom Duties on Cars Slashed Today
Posted by ShopinJA in Breaking News on May 2nd, 2011
Effective today [May 02, 2011] Jamaicans will start paying less custom duties on some imported motor vehicles.
Unrelated File Photo
The common external tariff (CET), on motor cars including SUVs has been cut from 40% to 20%.
The tariffs on motor bikes with engine sizes below 300 cc have been reduced to 10 per cent while tariffs on those with 600 cc engines have been cut to 20%.
In addition, the CET on all-terrain vehicles has moved down to 20%.
Licensed taxi operators who import buses with fewer than ten seats, will now pay an aggregate duty of 36%.
88% of Jamaican Mobile Users on Digicel Network
Posted by ShopinJA in Breaking News, Science & Technology on April 14th, 2011
MORE than 88 per cent of Jamaican mobile users are Digicel customers, according to the results of an islandwide survey released by the Mona School of Business at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona today.
Claro, which is being acquired by Digicel, has 15 per cent market share to LIME’s 18.4 per cent. The survey, conducted by Professor Hopeton Dunn of the MSB’s Telecommunications Policy Management Programme, with assistance from the United Nations and other international bodies, surveyed 2,200 households and individuals.
The percentages are not exclusive, however, since many persons are customers of more than one network.
The acquisition of Claro by Digicel, which is subject to Government approval, could also see Digicel acquiring a larger share of the Internet service provider (ISP) market.
Gov’t to Consider Legalising Ganja
Posted by ShopinJA in Breaking News on April 11th, 2011
CABINET has appointed a ministerial commission to review the recommendations made in the report of the National Commission on Ganja, which was chaired by the late Professor Barry Chevannes and submitted in 2001.
Ganja seized by Jamaican security forces.
The commission will comprise the foreign minister Ken Baugh; justice minister Dorothy Lightbourne; health minister Ruddy Spencer; agriculture minister Christopher Tufton; youth minister Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange and security minister Dwight Nelson.
The report included several recommendations, including that:
LIME & Flow to Build Islandwide Broadband Network
Posted by ShopinJA in Breaking News, Science & Technology on April 6th, 2011
GOVERNMENT today signed a $543 million agreement with telecommunications companies LIME (Cable & Wireless) and Flow (Columbus Communications) to build out a high-speed island-wide broadband network.
The project is intended to bring affordable and consistently high quality Internet delivery to all secondary schools, post offices and public libraries in Jamaica. Under the terms of the agreement, the providers will be held to the agreed standard of 99.9 per cent availability and high speed transmission of 100 megabits per second on the backbone.
“On Monday March 21, 2011, Cabinet approved the award of contracts to Cable and Wireless and Columbus Communications for the provision of a managed island-wide broadband network, not only for providing connectivity and Internet access to our targeted schools, libraries, and post offices. Any community, however remote, which has a public secondary or high school, will be provided with facilities for Internet access. The spin off benefit of this Project is that the deployment of high speed Internet services in the associated communities and within communities traversed by the optical fibre cables can be accelerated,” said Minister of Information Daryl Vaz at the signing held at Jamaica House.
Digicel to Power Down for Earth Hour
Posted by ShopinJA in Breaking News, Science & Technology on March 26th, 2011
TELECOMMUNICATIONS company Digicel will join millions of companies and households across the world this evening in powering down in observance of Earth Hour.
The company will switch off the lights and unplug non-essential devices and equipment at its Jamaica and group offices in New Kingston for one hour from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm.
Earth Hour takes place a week after the vernal equinox, when the seasons change, and it is dark at 8:30 pm local time in both the northern and southern hemispheres, so that people anywhere and everywhere can participate.
While the actual hour is a symbolic call to action on climate change and not intended as an energy-saving measure, event organisers are asking people to “go beyond the hour” and take meaningful steps to reduce their energy consumption after the lights go back on.
Organisers of the event, the World Wildlife Fund, said people in 131 countries have registered to participate in the event. The first Earth Hour was observed in 2007.
Commenting on the initiative yesterday, Digicel head of facilities management and emergency services, Donovan Betancourt said that the company takes the business of the protection and conservation of the environment very seriously.
One of the company’s flagship stores, Anbell on Knutsford Boulevard, electronic screens and the Anbell store will also be powered down during Earth Hour.
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