Finance Minister Audley Shaw on Thursday tabled a budget of J$773 billion for the fiscal year 2018/19 in the Jamaican House of Representatives on Thursday.
Details of the budget were outlined in the 2018/19 Estimates of Expenditure. The budget reveals J$560 billion allocated for recurrent expenses and J$213.6 billion for capital projects.
Largest sum to MFPS
The Ministry of Finance and the Public Service has been allocated the largest sum, with $240 billion for recurrent expenses and $155 billion for capital expenditure.
A large portion of the sum will go towards meeting the country’s debt obligations, while large sums have also been allocated to several other ministries.
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Information gets the second-largest amount with $103 billion for recurrent expenses and $1.6 billion for capital spending.
The Ministry of Health has been allocated $64 billion for recurrent expenses and $2.16 billion for capital projects, while the Ministry of National Security has received $66 billion for recurrent expenditure and $12.4 billion for capital projects.
For the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, $12.7 billion has been allocated for recurrent and $21 billion for capital; Ministry of Justice, $7.7 billion for recurrent and $1.8 billion for capital; and Office of the Prime Minister, $5.89 billion, recurrent and $5.5 billion, capital.
Less than 2017/18 budget
The budget for 2018/2019, is actually four-percent less than last year’s J$805 billion.
Six years of budget info
Meanwhile, the Estimates of expenditure now contains six years of budget information, instead of the usual three.
The information encompasses provisional and audited actual expenditure for 2016-17, the approved and revised estimates for the current fiscal year 2017-18, estimates for the upcoming fiscal year 2018-19, as well as projected estimates for 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22 fiscal years.
“The inclusion of the additional three years of projected spending in the estimates of expenditure will now become a permanent feature in the estimates and will shortly be extended to the revenue estimates. This is an effort to provide more information to the public about the government’s future spending intentions and this is in keeping with the administration’s commitment to greater fiscal transparency and accountability,” the Finance Minister said.
The Standing Finance Committee of Parliament is now scheduled to meet over three days from February 27 to March 1 to peruse the estimates.
The Finance Minister will open the Budget Debate on March 8.
