KINGSTON, Jamaica — Opposition Senator Lambert Brown is calling for the implementation of the 2023 proposal that would have seen the stipend paid to senators who are not part of the Executive increased to $148,000 per sitting.

Senators are currently paid $53,000 per sitting; the proposed increase would have moved it up by 179 per cent.

Ironically, former Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke rescinded the proposal after objections from Opposition senators who shot it down in September 2023, due to the backlash to the massive salary increases for politicians at the time.

A trade unionist, Brown, used his contribution to the debate on the Appropriations Bill to point out that, apart from some University of the West Indies employees, only senators are yet to benefit from the reclassification exercise.

“I want today to make a plea on behalf of the 16 non-executive senators, I don’t care what is the reason, but I believe, and I’m making a call to the minister [of finance] as a trade unionist, as a senator, this is not a party call — that the non-executive senators are the only ones in the Parliament who have not benefitted from the compensation review,” said Brown.

The five senators who are part of the Executive are Cabinet ministers Dr Dana Morris Dixon, Aubyn Hill and Kamina Johnson Smith, as well as Minister of State Abka Fitz-Henley and Parliamentary Secretary Marlon Morgan. Jamaica has a 21-member Senate — 13 appointed by the Government and eight by the Opposition.

“I’m saying that the 16 non-executive senators…that the principle of 2008 that was conveyed in the letter from the financial secretary to the clerk of Parliament in 2023 should be resent from finance so the senators — the non-executive senators…can receive an adjustment,” Brown pleaded.

He said he knew the matter was a sensitive one but noted that some senators like Charles Sinclair and Allan Bernard had to travel long distances each time the Senate meets. Both senators travel from Montego Bay, St James to downtown Kingston for each Senate sitting.

“Yesterday (Thursday) we were told electricity rate going up. Transportation cost going up, it’s only fair that the non-executive senators should have the adjustment that was proposed,” added Brown as he continued to make his case.

Meanwhile, the Opposition senator also made a call for the removal of the tax on the motor vehicle duty concession for public sector workers. He argued that the estimated $1.4 billion that the Government expects to receive from the revenue measure “is not worth squeezing the public sector workers”.

“I’m calling on the Government to reinstate the position prior to this budget; $1.4 billion in the context of a $1.4 trillion budget is truly chicken feed. That’s what they (the Government) found last year to buy old school buses. Why squeeze the public sector workers, why deprive them of the full benefit?” Brown asked.

The changes to the duty concession take effect May 1 and are projected to raise $1.3 billion dollars in revenue, according to Finance Minister Fayval Williams.

She has explained that under the proposed amendments, the 20 per cent import duty remains payable, general consumption tax (GCT) becomes payable and the special consumption tax exemption remains.

She argued in a statement to Parliament on February 12 that, “This concession was introduced to reduce the cost of vehicle ownership, support mobility and assist certain public sector groups in an environment that no longer exists.”

— Lynford Simpson