Finance Ministry to Release another Edition of Citizens’ Guide to National Budget

The Ministry of Finance and the Public Service will again be releasing another edition of their Citizens’ Guide to the Budget.

The document, which will be available on the website of the Ministry, is aimed at helping Jamaicans understand the technical terms and processes that are associated with the formulation of the National Budget.

Speaking with JIS News, Director of the Corporate Communications and Public Relations Branch at the Ministry, Shelly-Ann Weeks, noted that persons have found the information in the Citizens’ Guide quite useful.

“Since 2019, we have published the Citizens’ Guide to the Budget, which gives a breakdown of the Budget. The Budget is a big document, and the Citizens’ Guide tells you where the money is going, where the money is coming from, what you want to see, what is a loan, whether we will be fixing roads… it really just makes the Budget simple,” Ms. Weeks noted.

She added that the publication is usually done close to the reading of the National Budget.

Finance and the Public Service Minister, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, will open the National Budget Debate on Tuesday, March 12, in the House of Representatives.

“It is published in the newspaper, usually somewhere around when the Budget itself is presented. If you can’t get it in the paper, you can find it on the Ministry’s website because it is in our interest for the public to understand what is in the Budget,” Ms. Weeks told JIS News.

The reception to the publication has been positive, with many persons now using the document as a resource tool.

“I am happy to report that it’s been a very positive response. Since we launched our National Budget Secondary School Tour last year, we used the Citizens’ Guide to the Budget as the main reference tool, because the high-school students were able to read and comprehend the document,” Ms. Weeks said.