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The essential message of the budget is that it is now "time for us to live within our means," Financial Analyst and Consultant to the Ministry of Finance, Dennis Chung, has emphasised. "Look at it this way: It's like your personal budget. If you are in debt and your expenditure is greater than your income, you have to either cut...

A well-known financial analyst has come out in support of the Government's decision to impose a consumption tax on fuel, saying this move to realign the tax structure is more equitable to over-burdened PAYE taxpayers. Colin Steele, a member of the Board of the Pan Caribbean Financial Group and a respected financial analyst, told JIS News that he is generally...

Finance and the Public Service Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw, has announced a 100 per cent increase in the income tax threshold during the 2009/10 fiscal year. Opening the 2009/10 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on April 23, Mr. Shaw said the threshold would be doubled from the existing figure of $220,500 to $440,000 by January 1, 2010. He...

Finance Ministers from Latin America and the Caribbean are expected to meet in Santiago, Chile this summer, to deliberate on a Western Hemispheric response to the global financial crisis. Prime Minister the Hon. Bruce Golding, made the announcement at a press conference at the Norman Manley International Airport on Sunday night (April 19), shortly after his arrival from the Summit...

The 2009/10 Budget Debate begins on April 23, in the House of Representatives, with Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw, making his presentation. Mr. Shaw will tell the nation how the $547.75 billion budget for the fiscal year will be funded. On April 7, the Minister tabled the 2009/10 Estimates of Expenditure in the House, which showed...

The Ministry of Finance and the Public Service has been allotted $3.5 billion for the repayment of institutional loans this fiscal year. The provision has been made in the 2009/10 Estimates of Expenditure. As stated in the document, the bulk of the sum, $3.4 billion, will go towards the repayment of loans raised from local commercial banks to finance water...

Prime Minister Bruce Golding, has assured Members of Parliament that provisions are in the budget to buy emergency food supplies in the event of a natural disaster. He was answering questions of the Standing Finance Committee of the House yesterday (April 14). Noting that food could only be ordered just ahead of an impending hurricane, the Prime Minister said that...

The Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce(MIIC) has received $31.4 million, to assist micro, small and medium sized enterprises(MSMEs) increase their competitiveness in the agro-processing and craft sub-sectors. Under the Productive Integration of Micro-Enterprises in Jamaica/Industry Modernisation project 2009, there will be continued management and administration of the programme, with the completion of baseline studies of eight newly organised micro-enterprise...

Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, has declared that the Government will not be going to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financial assistance as the country does not have a balance of payment problem. "You seek IMF intervention when you have a balance of payment problem. We have not had a balance of payment problem for a long time," the Prime...

The National Irrigation Development Project has been given $21.5 million in budgetary support this fiscal year, as the Government strengthens efforts to increase agricultural production. As stated in the 2009/10 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives, the funds will go towards the procurement of irrigation equipment for farmers in Beacon/Little Park and Seven Rivers, St. James and...

Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Senator Don Wehby, attributes Jamaica's mounting public debt to a lack of "fiscal discipline" over the years. Speaking at the launch of the Jamaica Stock Exchange's (JSE) Junior Market, at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston, on Thursday (April 2), Senator Wehby noted that Jamaica's economy had been...

A new energy strategy will be presented during the current fiscal year, as Government moves to transform the sector to improve the country's competitiveness. Governor-General, His Excellency the Most Hon. Dr. Patrick Allen, delivering the Throne Speech to open the 2009/10 Parliamentary Year in Gordon House on April 7, said that work carried out last year in assessing the feasibility...