Former finance minister Dr Omar Davies is apparently not very optimistic that the Government will take on board proposals made by the Opposition in its contribution to the Budget Debate.

Davies, in his presentation last week, suggested a raft of ways in which Government could tweak its Budget.

However, when asked by The Sunday Gleaner on Friday if he was committed to working with the Government to develop the country, Davies was non-committal.

"I don't know what work with Government means. If it means that any proposal you put forward, they explain why it can't be done ... I am not looking a job," he said.

"I do not know ever before that an Opposition has sought to provide an administration with so much help in terms of structuring the Budget," Davies added.

The Opposition proposed, among other things, an increase in the tax on interests on government bonds from 25 per cent to 33 per cent.

Davies said that the move could net up to $8 billion. He said that with this, Government could reduce the $8.75 special-consumption tax on gasolene.

Creating jobs

He also said that in order to create jobs, the Govern-ment should consider taking money out of the Tourism Enhancement Fund and the Universal Access Fund to fund infrastructural work across the island. Davies said that the move would create jobs and give resort areas a facelift.

Last year, Davies said that the Budget presented by Finance Minister Audley Shaw for the 2008-2009 fiscal year was not credible. On Friday, he said that the 2009-2010 Budget was "much more disturbing than last year's in terms of a credible budget".

But the former finance minister has attempted to swing the argument away from pure politics. He told The Sunday Gleaner that the discussions around the country's budget were steeped in too much politics and not in hard economics.

"I could have scored political points, but I did not," Davies said.

He added: "It is interesting that the administration that spoke so much about growth - the first year in a decade we recorded negative growth; it is ironic that the administration which spoke about debt - the debt has grown by over $250 billion in 18 months under Minister Shaw."

The country's national debt at the end of March was $1.2 trillion. However, according to Davies, "those are not the substantive points".

He explained: "The substantive points are how are you going to credibly reduce the deficit? How will you, during this year, find the funding to finance the programmes which you have indicated?

"The fundamental problem is how are you going to attract the foreign-exchange funding to meet your external obligations? How are you going to meet the obligations in terms of the various public-sector groups?"