KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) spokesman on finance, Audley Shaw, says Jamaicans need a break and they will get that break after Thursday’s general election.

“Jamaicans are stressed out. Jamaicans are tired of devaluation and desperation. Jamaicans need a chance to turn their lives around. Jamaicans need a break,” Shaw told the crowd attending today’s launch of the party’s 2016 election manifesto, inside the Talk of the Town restaurant at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

“We are going to start, on April 1, to give them that break. We have decided and we have announced and today we repeat and we reaffirm that on April 1, we are going to lift the income tax ceiling from $592,800 to $1.5 million for everyone who earns $1.5 million and less,” he said.

“It means effectively that our wage earners at that level will be taking home a range of additional funds of between $8,000 and $18,000 more per month, depending on where they fall in that band,” he stated.

“We must bring back greater equity into the question of incomes in this country. We are one of the countries in the world that have the worst and most inequitable income systems, and we have got to make that change,” he added.

Shaw also stated the JLP will make sure that the manifesto does not become a mere “piece of paper or a book that is published” but, more importantly, “from day one after the election, the government of the Labour Party is going to be really working, working, working for the people of Jamaica”.

The function was chaired by JLP chairman, Robert Montague. Special guest was former JLP leader and Prime Minister Edward Seaga.

Balford Henry