2022/23 budget surpasses one trillion with $4.3 billion added
KINGSTON, Jamaica— The budget for the 2022/23 fiscal year which ends on March 31 now stands at a little over one trillion dollars.
This follows the tabling of the Fourth Supplementary Estimates of Expenditure by Finance and Public Service Minister, Dr Nigel Clarke, in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
A net amount of $4.3 billion has been allocated in the latest estimates, pushing the national budget up from $998.2 billion when the Third Supplementary Estimates were tabled and approved on January 31.
It comes weeks before the end of the financial year on March 31, and, according to Clarke, makes provisions for the continued implementation of the compensation restructuring for public sector workers.
“These fourth supplementary estimates arrive as those discussions/negotiations are continuing and, as a result of the advances made in those discussions, additional provisions have to be made,” said Clarke.
He explained that the estimates “makes provision for the implementation across the entire public sector, for the full implementation of the first year of the compensation restructuring”.
Clarke outlined that the estimates adjust compensation-related items by $10.1 billion, while accounting for an adjustment in capital expenditure downwards by $5.8 billion.
He disclosed that the cut relates to capital projects that are unlikely to be completed, or the funds drawn down in the next four weeks of the fiscal year. As such the funds are being reprogrammed.
“The net impact of the expenditure adjustment for the recurrent and capital expenditure is $4.3 billion,” Clarke noted.
“So overall, it’s a net increase in the expenditure for 2022/23 of $4.3 billion which actually would push expenditure for this year above the trillion dollar mark to one trillion, 2.6 billion,” he added.
The finance minister stressed that the additional amount is largely contingent on the ongoing discussions with respect to the compensation restructuring for government workers.
There is also additional expenditure being proposed for the National Solid Waste Management Authority and the cash-strapped Jamaica Urban Transit Company.
