KINGSTON, Jamaica — 

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr Nigel Clarke, has again dismissed as “incorrect and inaccurate” claims by Opposition Leader Mark Golding that the Government will have access to a $99 billion tax revenue windfall during 2022/23.

Dr Clarke first made the charge in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, when he closed the 2022/23 Budget Debate at Gordon House. He followed up with a statement today in response to a release from the Opposition yesterday insisting that Golding was correct when he claimed that in his presentation on March 15 that the figure was $99 billion.

“The Opposition Leader stated in his budget presentation that ‘the Government plans to collect $99 billion more in taxes this coming year. This is incorrect and the inaccuracy is unfortunate,” said Clarke, who is insisting that the projected revenue for 2022/23 is $65 billion and not the $99b stated by Golding.

“To compute how much more the Government plans to collect in taxes this coming year, one would have to subtract the latest estimated amount of taxes to be collected this year (2021/22) from the projected amount of taxes to be collected next year (2022/23),” Clarke explained.

He noted that the 2021/22 projected figure, as contained in the Second Supplementary Estimates tabled and passed in the House of Representatives in January, showed that estimated tax revenues for that fiscal year, which ends March 31, is approximately $606 billion. He also noted that the figure is included on page six of the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service’s (MFPS) 2022/23 Fiscal Policy Paper (FPP).

In addition, Clarke noted that the Page 34 of the FPP summarizes the Second and Third Supplementary Estimates for 2021/22, inclusive of the expected revenue of $606 billion for the current fiscal year. He said that this compares with the projected tax collection for 2022/23 of $671.5 billion, as contained in recently tabled budgetary documents.

Tax revenues are therefore expected to grow by the difference between the $606 billion in tax revenues now been declared for 2021/22, and the $675 million projected for 2022/23, which begins on April 1, in the most recent revenue forecast.

 Dr Clarke said that from the statement released yesterday by the People’s National Party (PNP) it would appear that Golding “picked up a figure from the column ‘Estimates 2021/22′ in the 2022/23 Revenue Estimates’, and interpreted it as the latest estimates of tax collection for 2021/22.

“This is an unfortunate error of interpretation by the Opposition Leader. Terms and headings in budgetary documents have very precise and specific meanings which, admittedly, can be confusing. This column actually refers to revenue estimates for 2021/22 as at February 2021. That is the 2021/22 budget as originally tabled, and this formatting is not new,” he explained.

”As we all know by now, Jamaica’s economic recovery has been robust and revenues surpassed initial projections by an appreciable amount. As such, revenue estimates for 2021/22 were revised in the First Supplementary Estimates in September 2021, and in the Second Supplementary Estimates in January 2022,” he noted. He also pointed to the revised estimates which are available on the Ministry of Finance’s website.

“If one is speaking in March, 2022 about how much the Government plans to collect in tax revenues in 2021/22, one would need to rely on these figures,” Clarke added.

In its statement yesterday, the PNP insisted that the Opposition Leader had correctly interpreted the Government plans to raise additional tax revenues of $99 billion.

“This figure comes from the tabled ‘Revenue Estimates 2022/23’ document which shows that the Government plans to take in tax revenues of $671 billion for the Financial Year 2022/23, up from $572  billion for 2021/22. That is an additional $99 billion which is on page 2 of the document tabled in Parliament,” the Opposition insisted..

The Opposition also pointed out that it is calling on the Minister to apologise for misleading the House and contradicting data from his own ministry.

-Balford Henry