Gov’t Proposing To Spend An Additional $50.15 Billion

The First Supplementary Estimates for the 2019/2020 financial year were tabled in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (September 24), with the Administration proposing to spend an additional $50.15 billion for the current fiscal year.

This will increase the $803.24-billion Budget approved in March this year to $853.39 billion.

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, tabled the document along with the Interim Report to the Government’s Fiscal Policy Paper for 2019/2020.

The Fiscal Policy Paper outlines the Fiscal Responsibility Statement, the Macroeconomic Framework and the Fiscal Management Strategy.

The total increase in the overall Budget is in recurrent or housekeeping spending, which is proposed to move from $731.12 billion to $781.28 billion. The capital budget remains the same at $72.1 billion, with some reallocation of funds within Ministries.

Public debt servicing gets the largest increase in recurrent allocation of $45.49 billion, with $40.2 billion dedicated to amortisation or principal payment and $5.29 billion for interest charges.

Among the portfolio areas, a total of $1.58 billion is being proposed to be added to the Ministry of National Security’s housekeeping budget of $24.6 billion for a new total of $26.19 billion.

The Ministry of Education, Youth and Information will receive an increase of approximately $1 billion, moving its total to $107.5 billion; $1 billion has been added to the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation’s $7.26-billion recurrent budget; and the Local Government and Community Development Ministry is receiving $448.8 million more, bringing its total to $12.1 billion.

On the capital side, $5 billion in additional allocation has been made under the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation for spending on construction and improvement to arterial roads under the Major Infrastructure Development Programme (MIDP).

The Ministry also received $655 million for the Jamaica Water Resources Development Master Plan; $164 million was added to the $550-million funding for the Montego Bay Closed Harbour Beach Park; and $60 million more for the Great Climate Readiness Programme.

Meanwhile, some Ministries are reporting savings in their recurrent budget. These include the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, which has seen a reduction from $62.26 billion to $60.42 billion; and the Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology, which reports a reduction in spending from $5.18 billion to $4.56 billion.

Members of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) are to deliberate on the First Supplementary Estimates, following which it will be debated in the House for approval.