THE House of Representatives approved the $89.9 billion or a 12.6 per cent increase in the 2017/18 budget during another marathon sitting which went beyond eight o’clock Wednesday night.

Minister of Finance and the Public Service Audley Shaw explained that the bulk of the increase — $68.5 billion or 76 per cent — will go to public debt payments, while $12.6 billion, or 14 per cent, represents a loan to the local oil refinery Petrojam Limited as working capital support; and the remaining $8.7 billion is for non-debt expenditure.

The non-debt expenditure of $406 billion, including recurrent expenditure of $356 billion and capital expenditure of $50 billion, ballooned to $426.5 billion.

Debt servicing costs, originally estimated at $310.4 billion, with interest charges projected at $137.8 billion and amortisation at $172.5 billion, was revised to $379 billion, reflecting a net increase of $68.5 billion, mainly due to the redemption of US dollar bonds.

There were increases in recurrent programmes, including the national security initiatives; payments for roadworks and rehabilitation; payments of salaries and compensation for various categories of public sector workers; and an increase in the marketing budget of the Jamaica Tourist Board.

Shaw explained that the reason for the allocation of $12.6 billion (US$100 million) to Petrojam, was due to the fact that Venezuela’s State oil company, PDVSA, which is a 49 per cent shareholder in Petrojam was recently sanctioned by the Uniteed States Government and was having difficulties financing its international transactions.

He said that this created the need for the Jamaican Government to provide the refinery with the US$100 million to assist with its working capital requirements to mitigate the impact of the US Executive Order, which was addressed by Minister of Science, Energy and Technology Dr Andrew Wheatley in the House of Representatives recently.

A sum of $2 billion has been reallocated to a new programme of road repairs, including parochial and farm roads.

Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Public Administration and Appropriations Committee Dr Wykeham McNeill said that the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation would be required to attend a meeting of the committee in January to discuss the programme.

The Jamaica Urban Transit Company also received $250 million to settle arrears with suppliers.

The Jamaica Tourist Board received $800,000 for marketing, and the Tourism Enhancement Fund $1.3 billion for projects.