Jamaicans have begun their own review of Government's latest tax package.

The Gleaner asked: What items, if any, do you think the Government should remove from its latest tax package?

Marie Lyons (25), student:

I believe the tax should be removed from ground provisions because that includes everyday organic seasoning used in our homes daily. Our body needs the carbohydrates and nutrients, so it would be more expensive for a housewife to be using these things in her house if the tax remains on these products.

Donna Blake (40), financial adviser:

First, the Government in Jamaica should never tax food, period! Food should never be taxed because we have to eat, and that is a necessity. Second, no baby stuff should be taxed. They can raise the tax on clothes and so many other things, but they can't tax our food.

Mark Dixon (30), chef:

I think they should roll back the taxes on cornmeal, ground provisions and meat. These are basic things that people need to survive, and to tax them at the rate that it is now is very hard, and you say that you are catering to poor people? This doesn't show it at all. I think they should revisit the Budget and find ways and means to make us move forward as a country.

Maxine Gordon (38), housewife:

Many people are dying of hunger. If dem tek off some a di tax dem can afford di food, easy. There should be no tax at all, di people dem a suffer, wi thinking about nutrition 100 per cent. Too much kids out there hungry, why yuh think we have so much crime?"

Lamarr Ferguson (20), administrative clerk:

Taxes should be removed from items like ground provisions and women's sanitary napkins, because I think those are unnecessary items to be taxed. Most of the items that are taxed are the things poor persons would normally buy, and I think most of them, like noodle soup and patties, are unnecessary to tax. It's going to pose a problem for those whose income is already budgeted out.