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Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Audley Shaw, has informed that as at the end of August, a total of $4.8 billion has been collected from the Special Consumption Tax (SCT) on fuel. Mr. Shaw was responding to a question posed by Opposition Spokesman on Transport and Works, Robert Pickersgill, at last Wednesday's (Sept. 16) sitting of the...

The Bank of Jamaica says it will be issuing a high security $5,000 banknote on Thursday (September 24). The note will be legal tender for all monetary transactions, and will complement the existing family of banknotes; namely $50, $100, $500 and $1,000. The portrait of the late former Prime Minster of Jamaica, the Rt. Hon. Hugh Lawson Shearer, appears on...

The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) has announced that effective Thursday (September 17), the rates offered on its Certificates of Deposit have been reduced by 100 basis points. The six-month benchmark rate will, therefore, move from 18 per cent per annum to 17 per cent. The full schedule of BOJ rates is set out below. Tenor30-days60-days90-days120-days180-daysNew rates 12.50% 13.00% 15.50% 15.70%...

The Bank of Jamaica (BoJ), has issued new shaped $1 and $10 coins into circulation. Both coins, which were issued last week, bear the images of National Heroes, the Rt. Excellent Sir Alexander Bustamante, and the Rt. Excellent George William Gordon, respectively, on one side, and the National Coat of Arms on the other. The original $1 coin has a...

Newly appointed Financial Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. Wesley Hughes, has charged players in Jamaica's music industry, to mobilise themselves into groups, which are able to formally lobby for their interests. Dr. Hughes was speaking on September 15, at a meeting of the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association (JARIA), held at the Jamaica Trade and...

Managing Director of Sterling Asset Management, Charles Ross, has said that borrowing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is the least painful option for Jamaica at this time. Mr. Ross, who was addressing the weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Mandeville yesterday (Sept. 15) at the Golf View Hotel in Manchester, noted that a number of countries in the...

Head of the Bank of Jamaica's (BoJ) Currency Department, Mr. Norbert Bryan, says the new $5,000 note, to be issued on September 24, will prove challenging to be counterfeited, given the design of its security features. Speaking with JIS News, Mr. Bryan said the printers and consultants had undertaken "a lot of research and development" in designing the note, adding...

The Bank of Jamaica (BoJ) is set to issue the new $5,000 note into general circulation on September 24, and will be staging a series of seminars to assist in sensitising financial sector stakeholders and the wider public on the note's new features. The seminars will be held in Kingston, Montego Bay and Mandeville, beginning Wednesday (September 16), ahead of...

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Audley Shaw, said last night that the outstanding cost to the country of co-hosting Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2007 has risen by an additional $1.4 billion, being claimed by Israeli-owned construction firm, Ashtrom Building Systems, for refurbishing Sabina Park. "That is what I discovered this week," Mr. Shaw told a large crowd...

Parliament will resume its sessions on Tuesday, September 15, and sit again on Wednesday, September 16. This was announced by Minister with responsibility for Information, Telecommunications and Special Projects, Daryl Vaz, at the Post Cabinet Press Conference at Jamaica House on September 9. The Minister said that the Government is consulting with the social partners before submitting the Supplementary Estimates...

The J$200 million allocated to the Young Entrepreneurs Programme (YEP) has not been affected by the cuts in the Budget. The Development Bank of Jamaica has requested a tranche of $100 M from the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service as a first draw down on the amount allocated. The budget for the programme remains at the J$200 million,...

Internal auditors employed in the public sector kicked off their three-day conference at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston Tuesday (September 8). The inaugural Government of Jamaica's Internal Auditors' Conference is being held under the theme, 'Internal Auditing: A Global Perspective'. Director of the Internal Audit Directorate (IAD) in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Hope Blake,...