Finance Minister, Fayval Williams, says the promises made by the Opposition would result in the country suffering from another financial meltdown similar to what took place in the 1990s.
She described the proposals as reckless and empty.
As she closed the budget debates in the House of Representatives, Minister Williams urged Jamaicans to reject the words put forward by the PNP without costing.
She went in-depth in assessing the financial implications of the proposals put forward by the Opposition.
Minister Williams says the promises would leave the country heavily in indebted.
Mahiri Stewart tells us more.
FINSAC 2.0
Minister of Finance, Fayval Williams, says the proposals put forward by the Opposition as part of the budget debates for the next fiscal year would result in setting Jamaica back more than two decades.
The near collapse of Jamaica’s financial system in the 1990s is known as the FINSAC era.
It resulted in Jamaica’s debt-to-GDP ratio soaring.
It was one of the single most devastating economic shocks faced by Jamaica.
Minister Williams says based on calculations, the Opposition promises would run the country an additional forty-nine-billion dollars.
She says this would push the country’s budget into a deficit of almost twenty-seven-billion dollars.
She also noted that the opposition would be simultaneously giving up billions in revenues.
The Opposition says it would fund its promises through the discretionary portion of the budget which amounts to roughly three-hundred-and-sixty-billion dollars.
This is the portion of government funding which does not go toward paying salaries and debt.
However, Mrs. Williams dismissed this suggestion.
She noted that this would require scrapping many programmes currently being used by hundreds of thousands of Jamaicans.
The Finance Minister says if the country attempted to put forward the PNP’s budget promises in the next fiscal year it would lead to disaster.
Additionally, the Minister says the the Opposition’s implied budget would destroy Jamaica’s hard-won international reputation, which has been used to refinance its debt.
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