The Government is to spend $453.5 million on the construction and improvement of courthouses. This is contained in the 2020/21 Estimates of Expenditure, which was tabled by Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, during the sitting of the House of Representatives on Tuesday (February 11). For the fiscal year, the Government is seeking to...

The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) has won the inaugural ‘Best Communication Initiative Award’ in the British-based Central Banking Publications’ seventh annual central banking awards. The award’s bestowal, which was formally announced on Thursday (February 6), is in recognition of the BOJ’s utilisation of reggae music in its communication strategy to simplify complex economic matters relating to inflation-targeting. In a statement...

The House of Representatives, on Tuesday (February 4), approved the Second Supplementary Estimates, which shows additional spending of $7.966 billion for this fiscal year. This has increased the Budget to $859 billion, with non-debt expenditure moving to $541.4 billion and public debt servicing at $317.6 billion. In his remarks, Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon Nigel...

Director General of the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), Dr. Wayne Henry, says it is necessary for Caribbean countries to continue to strengthen their Public Financial Management (PFM) system, to enhance fiscal responsibility reporting and oversight as well as to manage budgetary resources effectively. Delivering the keynote address at the Caribbean Public Financial Management Conference on Thursday (January 30), at...

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, says collective stakeholder efforts are required at all levels to significantly improve Jamaica's Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) framework. Speaking in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (January 28), Dr. Clarke, who noted that extensive measures have, to date, been undertaken to improve the framework, said...

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, says that while “vulnerabilities” exist, Jamaica is finally in a different place of macro-stability, where its future is brighter than it has ever been. Dr. Clarke, who was speaking at Mayor of St. Ann’s Bay, Councillor Michael Belnavis’ Benevolent Ball, at the RIU Ocho Rios Hotel on January...

Business persons who now fall below the new General Consumption Tax (GCT) threshold and are to be deregistered as taxpayers, will have the option to apply to the Commissioner General to be re-registered. This is being facilitated through amendments to the GCT Act, which were approved during Friday’s (January 24) sitting of the Senate. Leader of Government Business in the...