KINGSTON, Jamaica — Prime Minister Andrew Holness is to make his contribution to the 2017/2018 Budget Debate today at Gordon House.

He is expected to respond to a number of issues arising from the 2017/18 estimates of expenditure that was presented by Finance Minister Audley Shaw on March 9.

Holness is slated to address issues such as hope for Jamaicans, job creation and employment.

After Shaw’s contribution on March 9, he was followed by Opposition spokesman on finance, Dr Peter Phillips, who argued on March 14 that the budget tabled by the finance minister did not advance the country’s economic reform programme, adding that Shaw was “robbing the poor to pay the rich”.

Leader of the Opposition, Portia Simpson Miller, on March 16, made her contribution to the debate chastening the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government over their “unjust, counterproductive” tax package, which she said had “no heart”.

Shaw will bring the budget debate to a close tomorrow.