Gov’t Underspends Capital Budget For Second Year in a Row

For the second consecutive budget, the government has failed to spend billions of dollars in capital expenditure.

That’s according to the Third Supplementary Estimates tabled in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

The revised expenditure outlined a nineteen billion dollar reduction in capital projects that have either been reallocated to other areas or returned to the consolidated fund.

Chevon Campbell tells us more.

At the end of Fiscal Year 2023-2024, the government was forced to return nearly nine billion dollars to the consolidated fund due to under-expenditure in the capital budget.

They’ve repeated the under-expenditure for the current fiscal year.

However, this time it’s to the tune of $19 billion that will either return to the consolidated fund or be reallocated into other areas.

That’s more than double the previous sum, which was outlined by the Chairman of the Public Administrations and Appropriations Committee, Mikael Phillips.

The new budget for the financial year has been reduced overall by approximately six billion dollars.

This means a total expenditure of 1.386 trillion dollars, slightly down from the second supplementary estimates of 1.392 trillion dollars.

Finance Minister, Fayval Williams, says the revised budget represents the government’s commitment to fiscal prudence.

Minister Williams says the ability to quickly recover from multiple shocks is a testament to good governance and the resilience of the Jamaican people.

Meanwhile, Opposition Spokesman on Finance, Julian Robinson, voiced his concern over the repeated under expenditure.

However, Minister Williams, says the under-expenditure is related to new projects which failed to come on stream in the current financial year.

Fayval Williams, Minister of Finance and the Public Service.