Changes have been made to the Customs Tariff Regime, which will enable ground transportation operators in the tourism sector to diversify, upgrade and replenish their fleets. This was disclosed by Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, while opening the 2017/18 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives yesterday (April 4). The new framework will see an increase in the upper cost,...

The Government has crafted a National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS), which aims to improve the country’s financial system by 2020. The goal of the NFIS is to create the conditions in which Jamaicans, particularly those who were previously underserved by the domestic financial system, are able to save safely and build up resilience against financial shocks, and firms are able...

The role of the Accountant General’s Department (AGD) has been expanded as the Government moves to centralise its revenue. Accountant General, Carlene Murdock, said beginning this month, the AGD will receive revenue from the Jamaica Customs Agency (JCA) and Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ), which are the principal receivers of revenue. “It is another phase of the centralisation or the consolidation...

Twenty-seven public-sector management analysts will be trained and certified in their field under a programme offered by the Management Institute for National Development (MIND). The Management Analysis programme involves partnership with the Strategic Human Resource Management Division of the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service and ultimately seeks to improve the way public service is delivered. It represents a...

Effective April 1, the Accountant General’s Department (AGD) will only accept barcoded life certificates from pensioners. Accountant General, Carlene Murdock, who spoke at a JIS Think Tank on Friday (March 24) said the document will improve service delivery to pensioners. “We started using barcoded life certificates two years ago. It gives us all the information required for the pensioners. When...

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Audley Shaw, says the Government has embarked on a comprehensive rationalisation of public bodies. This, he said, will involve “a series of phased and sequenced actions over the next couple of fiscal years, whereby public bodies will, based on time-bound action plans, be merged, closed, privatised or reintegrated into the public sector”....

Each year, the Government publishes information on unclaimed balances in financial institutions for people to come forward to retrieve these sums. Sums that remain unclaimed after such publication are turned over to the Government. According to the Banking Services Act, 2015, unclaimed balances refer to monies that remain dormant in the possession or control of a banking institution for a...