Opposition Leader, Mark Golding has repeatedly adjusted his position on the increase in the country’s income tax threshold.
Nationwide News has looked back on the timeline of the PNP’s claims regarding their proposed increases.
Mahiri Stewart tells us more.
The income tax threshold has become a potent electoral calling card.
A promise to more than double the threshold was used to great effect by the then JLP Opposition in 2016.
In 2023, when the threshold stood at $1.5 million, Mr. Golding vowed to double it to $3 million, if his party formed the next government.
When grilled about the promise outside Gordon House in February that year, Mr. Golding told reporters the party had already worked out funding plans for the proposed increase.
At the time, he criticised Prime Minister Andrew Holness for announcing what was dubbed “1.5 2.0”.
He said an explanation of the funding was necessary.
During the closing of budget debates a year later, then Finance Minister, Dr. Nigel Clarke, noted that the proposed funding arrangements had been dropped from the PNP’s presentations.
In 2025, those plans were again absent from the PNP’s budget debate contributions.
Finance Minister Fayval Williams used her maiden budget presentation to announce further increases in the threshold to one-point-8-million dollars, with a further phased increase to two-million dollars by 2027.
When the question was put to the PNP President days after the budget debate, he informed journalists that the PNP’s funding proposal was under review.
He went further to say that he felt the current planned increases were appropriate.
Mr. Golding has also suggested that an increase in the threshold to 3-million dollars would not benefit enough Jamaicans.
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