THE Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which is seeking to form the government in the upcoming general elections, has promised to abolish statutory deductions for educational activities and finance a new education programme with the support of multilateral agencies.

Opposition Leader Bruce Golding told journalists at a press briefing on Monday at Belmont Road that the proposal might appear similar to one made by Finance Minister Dr Omar Davies during the 2005/2006 budget debate, but that closer examination would reveal substantial differences.

According to Golding, under the JLP’s plan there would be no increase in the payments by employees and employers, and its new education programme would rely on funding from multilateral sources, instead of the deductions.

“We are not talking about increasing deductions from the employees’ earnings, nor are we talking about increasing the employers’ contribution,” Golding said.

“Where it will involve reconfiguration of the inflows is with regard to the education tax that we are going to be taking out. It means that there will be no longer any inflows going into education from the statutory deductions that are made.”

“Quite frankly,” he went on, “there has been a lot of public resentment about the education tax because it goes straight into the consolidated fund. It is part of what is used to finance the education programme, but people have always been concerned that it is not dedicated, it just goes into the consolidated fund. That would go. The HEART contributions would go.”

Added Golding: “Those would have to be refinanced in terms of the whole programme that we are developing to deal with education. As a matter of fact, it is something that we have already started discussions with one of the multilateral agencies, and is something we also want to discuss with the World Bank.”

The idea of consolidating the statutory deductions was first raised by the former Leader of the Opposition, Edward Seaga, in the 1990s. It was initially rejected by the PNP government, but was resurrected by Dr Davies during the debate over whether government should use National Housing Trust (NHT) funds to finance education last year.