KINGSTON, Jamaica — The 2019/20 Budget Debate resumes this afternoon at Gordon House, Kingston, with the much-anticipated response from the Opposition to the Government’s $14 billion revenue “give back” measures being the main highlight.

The package, which was presented last Thursday in the House of Representatives by Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr Nigel Clarke, has set tongues wagging since then, with the government being widely congratulated for using the opportunity of an 0.5 per cent reduction in the primary surplus and significant increases in tax revenues to apply long delayed stimulants for increased growth.

In making use of the window of opportunity, the Andrew Holness Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) administration decided to scrap the minimum business tax, replace stamp duties with a flat $5,000 fee, reduce the transfer tax, raise the general consumption tax threshold and get rid of the asset tax for non-financial institutions.

However, despite the blessings of the private sector and the general public, the People’s National Party (PNP) Opposition has insisted that not everyone will benefit from the Government’s moves.

Opposition spokesman on finance, Mark Golding, said that ordinary Jamaicans would not be among those benefiting from the initiative.

“For the little small person who is struggling to survive — they are not benefitting from transfer taxes or stamp duty. So given the pressure the people are under, you could have given some of that $14 billion to those people,” Golding said.

But, Dr Clarke explained at a press briefing on Friday at his ministry, that the Government was very strategic in deciding on the multi-billion dollar tax cut.

“We are not out of the woods. At 96 per cent of debt to GDP (gross domestic product), that leaves us still very vulnerable, and so we have to be very strategic in the range of taxes that we choose to reduce,” Clarke said.

He pointed out that, strategically, the government has chosen to make adjustments to distortionary taxes, or taxes which distort business, investment and economic activities, and distort activities across a range of sectors for everybody.

“What we addressed were things that needed to be addressed a long, long, long time ago; the things that inhibit the growth that we want,” he added.

Balford Henry