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Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Audley Shaw, has announced the revisited list of items for which General Consumption Tax (GCT) has become applicable as of Monday, April 27, 2009. The Minister pointed out that GCT exemptions will continue for the following items: (1) Live birds, crustacean, mollusk or any other animal of a kind generally used as,...

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw, has said that the financial system remains strong and well capitalised. The Minister, who was opening the Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on April 23, commended the steps taken by the Bank of Jamaica earlier this year to stabilise the financial system, noting that they were successful. The foreign...

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw, has said that taxi fares, electricity bills, cooking gas and fuel used by the bauxite and aviation sectors should not be affected by the increase in the Special Consumption Tax on petrol he announced on Thursday. "We do not anticipate and expect that they will seek to increase taxi fares," Mr....

The Government is not expected to return to the capital markets this fiscal year, but expected loan inflows from the multilateral financial institutions will assist in meeting financial obligations. This was the word from Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Audley Shaw, as he opened the 2009/10 Budget Debate on April 23 in the House of Representatives. He...

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Audley Shaw, says that the fiscal package he revealed in Parliament on April 23, will allow the Government to meet its commitments to the people, increase the fairness of the tax system and better position the economy over the long term. "Our fiscal package will allow us to meet our commitments to...

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...