SHAW

The Government has increased its spending in the 2006/2007 Budget by $14 billion as reflected in the first supplementary estimates of expenditure, tabled inthe House of Representatives yesterday.

The estimates were tabled by the Minister of State for Finance, Fitz Jackson.

Last April, Parliament approved a $358 billion budget, which has now moved to $372 billion in the revised estimates.

Capital expenditure has been increased by about $1.1 billion moving from $146.4 billion to approximately $147.5 billion.

Recurrent expenditure or money set aside for housekeeping expenses has jumped from $211.7 billion to $224. 5 billion, an increase of about 13 billion.

Interest payments

Of significance is a $5 billion hike in interest payments on public debt, with the amount increasing to $97.05 billion, up from $92.42 billion.

Opposition Spokesman on Finance, Audley Shaw in an interview with The Gleaner pointed out that many critical areas in the budget have been sacrificed to wages and debt servicing and costs for Cricket World Cup 2007.

He argued tha Cricket World Cup should have been contained in the region of US$105 million or a little more than J$7 billion, the Government has spent nearly $9 billion for staging the event.

"A lot of critical things - infrastructure in education, infrastructure in health, support for farmers, support for small businesses and micro enterprises have been sacrificed on th of higher public sector wages, higher debt servicing cost and Cricket World Cup," Shaw stated.

Next Tuesday the Finance Committee of Parliament will examine the estimates beginning at 10:00 a.m. This will be followed by a debate in the afternoon.

An International Monetary Fund report on the performance of the Jamaican economy will also form part of the debate.