Finance Minister Fayval Williams has charged that the People’s National Party (PNP) would be running a budget deficit of $204 billion that would result in ‘Finsac 2.0’ and the collapse of the financial markets if the Opposition party is elected to office and implements the proposals its president and spokesman on finance presented during the 2025/26 Budget Debate.
Williams made the assertion as she closed the Budget Debate on Tuesday at Gordon House, where she used numerous charts and graphics to rip into what she called the Implied Budget of the PNP. She highlighted that the PNP has offered up nearly $49 billion in “goodies”, while the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government offered up $9.2 billion, a demonstration of the Government’s commitment to fiscal discipline.
She took Opposition Leader Mark Golding and his spokesman on finance Julian Robinson to task, arguing that they lacked specifics in terms of how the proposals they offered would be financed.
“Promises, promises, promises,” said Williams.
“The spokesman on finance put forward promises, but no costing. The leader of the Opposition put forward more promises as well, but no costing. They also came with their recounting of history. Sadly, it did not include Finsac (Financial Sector Adjustment Company) and the long-lasting drag that the home-grown financial sector collapse has had on the Jamaican economy, even to this day. Not a word was said about Finsac in any of the two speeches, not an apology, not an acknowledgement. It was as if Finsac never happened. They will be judged by the Jamaican people and the Jamaican businesses,” Williams added.
“The leader of the Opposition spent a lot of time talking about NHT (National Housing Trust). The first proclamation he made is that he ‘…will stop the annual extraction of the $11.4 billion from the NHT to fund the budget.’ He said that he would set aside one per cent of food import tax which would be $2.5 billion per annum for the Agricultural Fund. He promised employers an increase in the Employer Tax Credit to 40 per cent from 30 per cent. He also promised a National Disability Fund, but no amounts were attached to that either,” Williams said.
She scolded Golding for “decrying securitisation” after he pointed out that future revenues from Norman Manley International Airport were being used to finance the current budget.
“All told, between the Opposition leader and spokesman, they made promises upon promises upon promises, but did they give the Jamaican people any idea of how much those promises would cost and whether or not they would have to cut back on something to do what they are promising?” the minister asked.
She then reeled off a series of charts to demonstrate how the budget presented by the Government would match up against what she termed the implied budget of the Opposition.
Arguing that the Opposition’s budget would create another financial sector meltdown similar to the mid-1990s which wiped out 40 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and led to the creation of Finsac, Williams said the PNP “put forward a lot of words with few figures but within all those pages and pages and pages of words is a budget, an implied budget”.
“It is that implied budget that I would like all Jamaicans to understand, because it has serious negative ramifications for our future,” she warned.
Pointing out that Jamaica has an obligation to make $177.5 billion in interest payments, the finance minister said: “This is immovable.”
She then pointed out that, on the Government side, “We can make the interest payment and have $780 million left as a fiscal balance surplus, a small surplus, but a surplus, and it sure beats the many years of deficit spending after deficit spending that the Opposition had when they were in Government.”
“With our budget we can go to the financial markets and borrow to refinance the $162.746 billion of debt that will come due during financial year 2025/26. We will borrow less than is coming due,” she stated.
“On the Opposition side, their implied budget cannot meet the interest payment. They would run a huge fiscal deficit of $204 billion. The Opposition went partying with the rent money,” she declared.