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Haiti Revenues
The structure of government revenues changed distinctly
as a
consequence of the tax and tariff revisions of 1986.
Haiti's
taxes and tariffs historically exacted revenues from
directly
productive activities--mainly agriculture--and from
international
trade. This revenue structure eventually created
disincentives
for the production of cash crops and other export
products, while
it stimulated the development of uncompetitive industries.
Over
time, Haiti's authorities created a public-finance pattern
that,
when combined with a highly regressive income tax, raised
approximately 85 percent of its revenue from the rural
population, but spent only about 20 percent on those same
taxpayers.
A 10 percent value-added tax was introduced in 1983,
but it
was not until 1986 that tax and tariff reforms began to
shift the
source of revenues. New tax laws simplified the income-tax
process, altered tax brackets, and strengthened
tax-collection
efforts. In the area of trade regulations, the new
government
phased out export taxes and replaced quantitative
restrictions on
all but five goods with ad valorem tariffs of a maximum of
40
percent, thus essentially lowering import protection and
liberalizing trade. As a result of these policies,
revenues
derived from international trade dropped from 35 percent
in FY
1984 to an estimated 22 percent in FY 1989; the revenue
balance
in both years was derived from internal taxes.
Data as of December 1989
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