$40 billion more

Declaring that it was not the time for “fiscal conservatism”, Opposition Leader Mark Golding is pushing the Holness administration to consider an additional expenditure of $40 billion, or two per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), to address social-welfare deficits.

That warning included a hint that hunger and other needs could stoke social protest.

In his contribution to the Budget Debate in Gordon House on Tuesday, Golding warned that the Government was “playing with fire by leaving vulnerable populations unprotected in this vortex of high inflation and the unbearable cost of living”.

He scoffed at Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke’s announced plans to give back $2.75 billion in taxes to reduce the impact on some transport operators and to offer assistance to the most vulnerable.

Inflation, recorded January at almost 10 per cent, has caused a spike in food and commodity prices, including a net double-digit percentage rise at the pump over the last three months.

“The Government has not protected the people from what they are facing. This Budget has no meaningful provisions to protect them from the onslaught. We demand that more be done to ease the burdens on the Jamaican people,” said the opposition leader.

He accused Clarke of being more concerned about “appeasing credit-rating agencies and the capital markets than providing relief for the suffering people of Jamaica”.

“We can always recover lost ground in our efforts to lower debt when the crisis is over,” he said.

Golding noted that while “beating” his chest in announcing no new taxes last week, the finance minister plans to collect $99 billion more in taxes in the upcoming financial year than in 2021-22.

“That is unconscionable at a time like this!” he said.

The opposition leader said that the $2.75 billion is a mere 0.1 per cent of GDP, or as he called it, “a drop in the bucket”.

Using reggae icon Bob Marley’s song to convey his message, Golding said: “Rain a fall, but the dutty tough. Pot a cook, but the food nuh nuff. A hungry man is an angry man.”

He urged the Government to substantially increase funding to the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education, poor relief, and social pension.