MUNROE

The country's debt ceiling will shortly be raised by another J$50 billion, going up from J$650 billion to $700 billion.

The Senate on Friday passed a bill - An Act to Amend the Loan Act - to give effect to the increase, thereby affirming the earlier action of the House of Representatives on the matter.

The loan ceiling was last raised in March 2004.

It was in 1964 that the Loan Act was enacted, setting the legal basis for Government borrowing to finance its expenditure, with specific limits on the extent of such borrowing. This ceiling has been raised at intervals over the years, but the rate of increase has speeded up over the past decade.

Senator A.J. Nicholson, Leader of Government Business, explaining this phenomenon, pointed in particular to the impact of the operations of FINSAC - the financial sector stabilisation unit set up in the 1990s in the wake of the financial sector crisis of that decade.

Senator Christopher Tufton of the Opposition chided the Government for its approach, asserting that the country had not received satisfactory returns on the money borrowed.

But Professor Trevor Munroe, government member, took a different position, charging that the country had received value for money. He highlighted various "significant projects", such as those executed bythe Jamaica Social Investment Fund, the large infrastructure projects, including the highways, and the Half-Way Tree transportation centre as examples.