Dr Nigel Clarke, minister of finance and the public service, did not disappoint in his opening presentation of the 2022/23 Budget Debate.

One of the strong features of his presentation is the feeling that he has a good grasp of the portfolio for which he is responsible. He has grown in the job and seems to be reaching a certain comfort level in his understanding of the enormity of the portfolio and its relevance to the Jamaican people.

I say this because one does not get the impression that Clarke is just concerned about numbers. As a University of Oxford-trained mathematician, he clearly understands figures and, no doubt, knows how to manipulate them to achieve a desired end.

But what I have seen in his four budget presentations to date, and in his management of the financial portfolio in general, is a sensitivity to the moral underpinnings that undergird these figures because they speak unerringly to people’s lives and thus the human element has to be at the core of whatever decisions are made.

Therefore, he is no mere technocrat, although he has the credentials to be. The correlation between the technical aspects of his job and his understanding of the human element to which decisions speak give a compassionate edge to his presentations and has served to make his presentations credible.

The minister is developing a reservoir of trust in his integrity. One hopes that the murky waters of politics will not cause him to stray from this path.

So far, one does not get the impression that he is trying to lead you down a garden path. What he says he means, because his words are not detached from the hard, empirical evidence of the situation he is addressing at a given time. I believe it is this credibility that helped him in the conclusion of the wage agreements with certain public sector bodies recently. When he says we cannot be fiscally irresponsible and sacrifice the sustainability of the economy for short-term political gain, that is something to which we can all say amen.

And we should find this refreshing, given the hard history of economic unsustainability with which we have been plagued over the years. Apart from the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (Finsac) debacle, we will never forget the “run wid it” recklessness of one of the longest-serving finance ministers the country has had when fiscal deficits were allowed to run to satisfy short-term political gain. We paid dearly for it and are now just digging ourselves out of the debris left by that bombing of the national patrimony.

So the economy, after having been savaged by one of the worst crises the world has ever seen — the novel coronavirus pandemic — which shaved $75 billion off revenue from the Government coffers, is once again poised for growth. As the minister stated, before the novel coronavirus pandemic we were set to reduce our indebtedness to 95 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), but the pandemic pushed it to 110 per cent.

By the end of this fiscal year, it is expected to return to 96 per cent or thereabout. Whichever way you look at it, this is no mean feat. This is a testimony to how the Government has managed the fiscal space during the pandemic. That there have been no mass protests or general discontent is a further testimony to how well the Government has managed the economy over the period.

A big plus here was the Government’s management of the social safety net for the vulnerable population. Within the context of limited resources, severe hardships were mitigated. With all of that and the tremendous economic fallout from the pandemic, there was no net borrowing as was being urged by the Opposition in the last budget debate. Neither was there any new taxes raised on an already beleaguered population. These are indisputable facts which even the worst detractors of Dr Clarke and the Government will find it difficult to refute.

At the end of 2019 the economy was poised for growth. All the macroeconomic indices were pointing in the right direction. Debt to GDP was expected to fall to an appreciable level, fast approaching the global benchmark. There was an appreciable buildup of net international reserves, which assured the business sector and the country that we had the tools to deal with any serious slippage in the foreign exchange rate. The private sector was beginning to sense that buoyancy could return to the economy. Some sharpened their tools to take advantage of the opportunities that were emerging. The traditional gripers did what they do best, gripe.

I have to ask the question, and in so doing expect a barrage of criticism from my ‘Comrades’ in the People’s National Party. What would the situation be like if the PNP was at the wicket? From their own prognostications it is clear that they would have resorted to borrowing, using the pandemic as an excuse. It is good that the Government, in its wisdom, did not follow their bad advice to run the deficit to pursue an elusive growth objective. Knowing what indebtedness has done to the country, the Andrew Holness Administration has wisely turned its back on further harnessing the country’s patrimony to further indebtedness.

Furthermore, if the PNP were in charge, it would have found a justification to raise new taxes to support their elusive growth agenda. With increased borrowing and new taxes, where would the country be today? Would those funds have been spent any more wisely than those in the past?

In his presentation in this year’s budget debate, the Opposition spokesman on finance Julian Robinson was more sedate and rational in not calling for more debt, although he believes that the savings from the gas tax should be used to alleviate any suffering that the poor will undergo as gas prices increase.

Recrafting the budget in light of rising petroleum prices is a premature suggestion. No one knows for sure where this will settle. The Government cannot squander the proceeds from the special gas tax and must be prudential in its use. It needs this revenue which is easily collected. This might be part of the reason it does not have to raise new taxes in this fiscal year.

There were a number of interesting points made by the minister which beckon further elucidation. Two of these are pension portability and just public sector compensation. These will be fleshed out in the year ahead, but the rationalisation of public sector wages must be concluded with some urgency.

The minister has demonstrated that a budget is not just about balancing books, but balancing lives as former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller used to remind us. Appreciating the difference between the two takes a heart that truly cares for people.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest, social commentator, and author of the books Finding Peace in the Midst of Life’s Storm and Your Self-esteem Guide to a Better Life. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or stead6655@aol.com.