OPPOSITION spokesman on Finance, Dr Peter Phillips, says that he is proud of the record of the last People’s National Party (PNP) Administration, and thinks that the party still represents the best hope for Jamaicans.

“We are proud of the record of performance of the People’s National Party. We are proud of the fact that we reduced the rate for GCT and we were going to do more. We are proud of the fact that we reduce customs duty on goods, all custom duties on raw material, so we could get the Jamaica economy moving again and provide jobs for our people. We have to have more, but we are proud of our record,” Dr Phillips told a Kingston Eastern and Port Royal constituency divisional conference at the Vauxhall High School Auditorium, Windward Road, on Sunday.

“We put more money in education and we have been getting some good result at the CXC level. We are proud of the fact that the administration led by comrade Portia Simpson Miller reduced the interest rate in the National Housing Trust, introduced the zero per cent interest rate. We are proud of the fact that more Jamaican people and poor people got titles to own their own house and land under the past four years than any other four-year period … We are proud of the record. We are proud that we took more than 50 schools off the shift system and that we made provision so that the shift system would come to an end in 2018, because that was a commitment of the People’s National Party,” Phillips lamented.

Turning his focus to the Andrew Holness-led Government’s plan to implement the promised $1.5-million personal income tax threshold, Phillips argued that what was promised was not what was delivered.

“We don’t hear nothing bout tax package then, we have heard nothing since about minimum wage,” Phillips argued.

In the meantime, Dr Phillips urged “comrades” to develop an accountability system.

“So what we have to do is work to ensure that we create a kind of accountability for the country, where people cyaan just get up and chat and put the country at risk by virtue of promising what they either never intended to deliver or what they were not honest enough to admit that they have calculated wrong,” Phillips said.

“But most of all, we have to be aware of what our own performance was and don’t make anybody try to confuse the facts of history, or make anybody try to confuse your own beliefs… or make anybody try to destroy your moral and confidence in what has been achieved,” Phillips said.

Phillips said that the PNP had gained respect in the international markets, and is responsible for the economic stability. He said, however, that based on the additional taxes introduced during the recent budget presentation, Jamaica’s economy will suffer under the current Jamaica Labour Party Administration.

“We are not going to bad mouth and wish they fail no test. But we are not going to forget that they have to proclaim it that Jamaica has seen the lowest inflation rates for over 50 years under the PNP. Let me tell you, the biggest burden and pressure that poor people feel is when prices just gallop, gallop and we have seen signs,” he stated.

— Racquel Porter