KINGSTON, Jamaica — Expressing concern over the possibility of new taxes on Jamaicans rebuilding from Hurricane Melissa’s devastation, members of the People’s National Party (PNP) said they were eagerly awaiting the finance minister’s presentation of the 2026-2027 budget at Parliament’s official reopening on Thursday.

“We are concerned about that announcement because at a time when the economy has contracted, and growth has gone into negative territory, imposing taxes on the population is what you call a procyclical measure; it tends to worsen that depression in the economy,” said Opposition leader Mark Golding as he was completing his walk into Gordon House.

He shared that while he understood that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) are faced with “hard economic decisions”, he was wary of the act and was awaiting Finance Minister Fayval Williams’ presentation of the budget to form his opinions.

“I understand that the Government has some difficult fiscal choices to make and I don’t want to pre-judge what they’re going to do but the approach of trying to tax your way out of the fiscal gap has some negative consequences that will flow from it, in terms of the lives people live, their cost of living and generally speaking how quickly our economy can recover. So it’s a very delicate situation, and I’m looking forward to hearing the specifics of it hopefully today,” said Golding.

Member of Parliament for St Andrew South Eastern and Opposition Spokesperson on Finance, Julian Robinson, also expressed concern over the proposed new taxes, noting that the timing would strongly impact those trying to rebuild after the October 28, 2025, category five storm.

“We’re looking forward to hearing what the revenue measures are. The Government has indicated that they plan to implement taxes. Taxes are going to be a severe burden and hardship on many people, particularly those in western Jamaica, people who have lost jobs, businesses that would have been destroyed and lives that would have been displaced, coming at this time on the heels of challenges that those people are facing,” he said.

Robinson said that while he was not clear on how the taxes would be implemented, his concerns were for the people who, he says, will be the ones affected.

“We don’t know the specific measures, and I’m not sure if it will be tabled today, but it is obviously of concern for those who are most vulnerable. So we’ll have to hear from the minister of finance exactly who is going to be taxed and what the nature of the taxes is,” said Robinson.

Minister Williams will present the budget at 2:00 pm on Thursday, which is expected to outline the Government’s plans for the new fiscal year and any proposed tax measures.