Government to table revised budget month end

The Government is to table a revised budget by the end of this month that will see $8.6 billion cut from the original budget approved at the start of the current fiscal year. 

Leader of Government Business in the House of Representatives, Phillip Paulwell, told The Gleaner/Power 106 News Centre that the House will resume sittings next Tuesday.

He says the revised estimates of expenditure will be tabled by the end of January.

The government had budgeted $642 billion for this fiscal year.

Last September, Finance Minister, Dr Peter Phillips, told the Parliament that the revised budget is necessary because of shortfalls in revenue and higher than planned public sector compensation costs.

He added that for the upcoming 2016-2017 financial year, the main challenge facing the Government is to achieve the nine per cent wage to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio by March 2017.

The International Monetary Fund has demanded that Jamaica take steps to cut the wage bill to meet the agreed target.

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