Senate’s Approval of Amendment to Appropriations Bill Will Not Affect Budget for 2024/25

The Senate passed the Appropriations (Amendment) Bill, today (April 12), which seeks to remove, from the Act, the amounts related to statutory expenditures that were inadvertently included in the schedule.

The legislation was piloted by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and Leader of Government Business in the Senate, Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith.

Senator Johnson Smith reiterated that the amendment to the Act does not affect the 2024/25 central Budget of $1.341 trillion.

“The budget that has been presented by the Government of Jamaica for the fiscal year is the budget that will be implemented. There is no change to the Budget, so capital expenditure remains the same at $80 billion, that is as set out in the Estimates of Expenditure. Recurrent expenditure, public debt service, all remain at the same levels that are in the Estimates of Expenditure… the revenue estimates, they all remain the same as presented,” she noted.

“All the benefits that have been announced in the presentations by the Most Hon. Andrew Holness and the Hon. Dr. Nigel Clarke… all of those benefits will be delivered; they have not changed. A transcription error occurred in the Appropriations Act, nothing more and nothing less,” the Minister added.

Senator Johnson Smith further stressed that this is “still a budget for the people, it’s still a budget allowing our pensioners to receive more money every month [and] our young HEART trainees will get their tool grants when they achieve their level-four training”.

“What we are doing today will not change the fact that hospitals will be renovated, as has been promised, that the investments in our security architecture will continue, and what occurred was simply a transcription error in the Appropriations Bill,” she stressed.

Senator Johnson Smith noted that the amendments to Act had to be done quickly, so that it does not affect the operations of government.

“I am advised that as at this morning, the warrants required to make payments under the relevant heads have been prepared in anticipation of the amendments before us, so that when they are passed, they may also act expeditiously, to ensure again that there are no disruptions in the payments to be made,” Senator Johnson Smith said.