PNP's promises would cost $48 billion, create ‘FINSAC 2.0’ – Finance Minister

The Opposition People's National Party's (PNP) promises during the debate on the budget for the next fiscal year would cost more than $48 billion, and create “FINSAC 2.0," Finance Minister Fayval Williams has argued.

FINSAC is a reference to the Financial Sector Adjustment Company, the entity that was set up by the then People’s National Party administration to manage the fallout from the collapse of the financial sector in the 1990s, which has been blamed on the high-interest rate policy at the time.

It has widely been regarded as one of the biggest financial crises in modern Jamaican history, causing scores of businesses to fold and proprietors to lose their homes and other personal assets in the process.

The PNP has faced criticisms for not indicating how it would fund the many proposals that have come from President Mark Golding and Spokesman on Finance Julian Robinson.

But in closing the National Budget Debate on Tuesday, Williams estimated that some of the PNP’s promises, or what she described as the party’s “implied budget" would cost taxpayers approximately $48.8 billion.

“It is that implied budget that I would like all Jamaicans to understand because it has serious negative ramifications for our future,” the finance minister said, as she attempted to do a “side-by-side” comparison of the Government's budget for the upcoming fiscal year and the “implied budget” of the PNP.

Opposition Mark Golding intervened and accused Williams of misleading the House of Representatives, noting that the Opposition did not present an implied budget.

“We presented our proposals, our policy commitments for the next PNP government, and we have never said that they will be implemented in the coming fiscal year,” Golding said, drawing jeers from members of parliament on the Government side.

“After today, the budget would have been passed for the fiscal year. Our proposals represent what we will be doing for the duration of our first term in office…and they will all operate within existing fiscal rules,” he sought to explain amid the jeers.

But the finance minister asserted, as an example, that the PNP’s proposal to exempt new micro, small, and medium enterprises from corporate income tax for an initial three-year period would cost $11 billion in the first year.

She noted, too, that the government currently spends $9 billion annually to provide meals for 200,000 students and suggested that the PNP’s proposal to provide a meal for primary and secondary students would double that figure, with the number of beneficiaries moving to 400,000.

"They are in the red when you add the cost of their promises," Williams said, adding, "they would have trampled on the fiscal rules, the same ones they told us they codified in law."

The PNP has since called a post-budget press conference for tomorrow.

The budget debate took place amid the looming general election, which is constitutionally due by September.

-Livern Barrett

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