Second Supplementary Estimates for 2023/24 Tabled in the House of Representatives  

  • Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, on Tuesday (July 18), tabled the Second Supplementary Estimates for fiscal year 2023/24 in the House of Representatives. The primary objective of the Estimates is to reallocate to individual heads the required funds to enable payment of the compensation adjustments during the fiscal year.
  • In December 2022, the Government commenced implementing the Public Sector Compensation Restructure, which is still underway. Dr. Clarke informed that given the effective implementation date of April 1, 2022, and the fact that discussions with some unions continued into the current fiscal year, it was not possible to incorporate these adjustments at the beginning of the 2023/24 fiscal year to facilitate payment of the second-year compensation restructure amounts.
  • Due to this, an estimated amount for the second-year payments was captured in the Contingency funds of the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service. He further indicated that several entities are also being allocated one-off grants or additional subventions, to enable them to meet the compensation restructure payments.
  • Clarke noted that the Second Supplementary Estimates, therefore provides for the transfer of $14.8 billion from the contingency allocation under the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service to several ministries, departments and agencies (MDA) Heads for the compensation of employees. The Estimates also provide for the addition of $8.9 billion to recurrent programmes, primarily to facilitate other compensation restructuring payments.
  • Under recurrent programmes, the Second Supplementary Estimates also reflect the $2.7 billion in value of equipment, including taxes paid on that equipment donated by the People’s Republic of China. It also reflects $5.6 billion in loans to public bodies comprising working capital support of $5 billion to Petrojam and $600 million to the Sugar Company of Jamaica Holdings Limited.
  • As a result of this, the Central Government spend for fiscal year 2023/24 is, therefore, now estimated at $1.036 trillion, up from $1.021 trillion. If revenue estimates should remain unchanged, then there could be a downward revision to the fiscal and primary balances for FY 2023/24.

(Source: JIS)