At a time when the private sector Cayman Islands goose that has laid a lot of golden eggs over the years is now expected by the government to reach even deeper into already depleted pockets, some people are asking if the government and its agencies are going to be placed on an equal footing with local businesses and residents when it comes to the new taxes.

In other words, questioning whether what’s sauce for the private sector goose is also sauce for the public sector gander.

One of the new revenue measures introduced in the recent budget is a so-called business premises “fee” (a tax by any other name is still a tax) charged at the rate of 10 percent of the rental paid by the tenants of commercial properties.

Apart from the fact that an effective 10 percent increase in rents will be a tremendous additional burden to many struggling businesses - regardless of their size: small, medium or large - the government and its several agencies are also tenants of a significant amount of commercial space.

The question arises, therefore, will the government also pay the 10 percent business premises tax?

Will government-owned companies such as the Registrar of Companies or ICTA pay the new business premises tax to the extent they rent commercial space?

If the Civil Service Association takes shares in the new Government Administration Building as recently mooted, will the government as a tenant, not owner, pay the new business premises tax?

Of course, the predictable response will be that there is no need for the government to pay itself and this is presumably the argument deployed in the case of other fees and taxes such as import duties and work permit fees.

Regrettably, governments have used this advantage over the years to compete unfairly with the private sector in many respects – an issue we have raised on at least one earlier occasion.

In a free market economy, competition tends to moderate excessive or unwarranted price increases, and often results in declining prices, as in the case of the telecommunications industry following deregulation.

However, competition with government departments or agencies does not represent a free market and is therefore likely to cost the country and its people more in the long run.

And then, not only does the government compete with private enterprise, it also wants to tell local businesses how to operate in terms of staffing – who they may hire and for how long, whilst at the same time perpetuating a preferential system of staffing for the competing government-owned companies and agencies.

There was an announcement two years ago that a study had begun with a view to applying immigration term limits (rollover) to non-Caymanian civil servants, but we have heard precious little about it since.

Indeed, along with the announcement itself were comments about the consideration and compassion that ought to be extended to government employees in this respect, which stood in stark contrast to the complete disregard for the effects of the rollover policy on the local business community.

According to no less a person than H.E. the Governor, government services were, apparently, not to be “disrupted” and its employees are to be “treated fairly”.

The then Chief Secretary explicitly drew a parallel between government and business when he referred to the government as “a business owner” that must ensure the maintenance of an expected level of service.

Unfortunately, none of these considerations were extended to the private sector, even though the officials concerned, perhaps unwittingly, articulated the specific resentments brought about by the rollover policy, which were and are steadfastly ignored so far as the private sector is concerned but which suddenly became of major importance when the government and its employees might be affected.

However, not even the promised civil service rollover was ever used to reduce the growth in employee numbers – which have subsequently become an economic embarrassment in the context of government expenditure that even now is not being addressed effectively or at all.

In the meantime, not only does the public sector continue to compete unfairly with the private sector, to the detriment of the country as a whole, the latest budget will add fuel to any resentment at the preferential treatment afforded government and its agencies at a time when the less well off elements of the private sector are expected to bail out everyone else.