Finance Minister, Dr. Nigel Clarke, is defending the Holness administration’s track record on fiscal stability after it missed key revenue targets for the last financial year.
He’s reacting to news from the Economic Programme Oversight Committee, EPOC, that four budget targets were missed.
Dr. Clarke took to the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to correct what he called misinformation about the issue.
Chevon Campbell tells us more.
The four budgetary targets missed include, Revenues and Grants, Tax Revenue, Fiscal Balance and Primary Balance.
There are four 8 indicators tracked by EPOC.
Of the remaining four, three were within budget and one was ahead of budget.
However, Dr. Clarke reminded the nation that this was not the first time the country missed budgetary targets.
He says Jamaica has achieved its budgetary revenue projections only four times in the past twelve years.
He says all four times have been under the Holness administration.
Dr. Clarke says despite other fiscal progress, budgetary revenue projections were not achieved for any year during the 2012-to-2016 PNP administration.
The missed targets were a result of tax revenues underperforming for the last financial year.
The development has been attributed primarily to lower than anticipated revenues from corporate income taxes.
Dr. Clarke highlighted that this information only came to light due to the administration’s commitment to the best principles of fiscal transparency.
It was the Finance Minister himself who disclosed that March 2024 revenues under-performed.
However, he says some have used this as an opportunity to make false comparisons while peddling misinformation.
He’s urging the public not to be misled by uninformed comments.
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