Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, says the decision to allow students seeking a loan from the Students’ Loan Bureau (SLB) to only need one guarantor was done out of a need to balance accessibility with sustainability. “The SLB doesn’t work if it can’t be sustained, it doesn’t work if monies lent are not...

Effective April 1, students seeking a loan from the Students’ Loan Bureau (SLB), will now only require one guarantor instead of two. This was announced by Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, who said this is being done to broaden accessibility to this loan facility, particularly for low-income families. “One hurdle that creates a...

Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) will open select Tax Offices this Saturday March 13 and every Saturday up to April 24, 2020, as it continues in its efforts to bring greater convenience to taxpayers as the fiscal year end draws closer, in addition to facilitating persons paying Property Taxes due in April. The Saturday operations are expected to provide persons with yet another option do...

Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) has taken yet another game changing step into the future of tax services, with the introduction of an auto-renewal feature for the Tax Compliance Certificate (TCC) via its Revenue Administration Information System (RAIS). The new feature which has been in operation since February 12 has auto-renewed 271 certificates, and is expected to significantly improve compliance and...

The Jamaican economy is projected to grow by an average 4.1 per cent over fiscal years 2021/22 to 2024/25, after contracting during 2020/21. This is according to the Government of Jamaica 2021/22 Fiscal Policy Paper, which indicates that the economy declined by 14.6 per cent during the first half of fiscal year 2020/2l, from April to September 2020. The document,...

The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) is reporting an increase in the number of new investors entering the equities market between 2015 and 2019. JSE Group Business Development Manager, André Gooden, said that the figure rose from 3,412 in 2015 to 48,128 in 2019. He pointed out that this upswing was spurred by several large initial public offerings, which he said...

The Companies Office of Jamaica (COJ) is reporting a record number of entity registrations for last year; 27% of which was done using its recently launched Electronic Business Registration Platform (eBRF). The record registration was achieved despite the Covid-19 Pandemic and the temporary suspension of the Agency’s business mobile. Entrepreneurs and investors in 2020 registered 12,809 Business Names and 3,935...