Giveback initiatives are to ease burden, not election gimmick - Morris Dixon

Information Minister Dr Dana Morris Dixon has asserted that the suite of initiatives announced by Prime Minister Andrew Holness at the Jamaica Labour Party's annual conference on Sunday is focused at easing the cost of living pressures in Jamaica, and is not a strategic move to secure votes ahead of next year's general election.

“This is not a gimmick, this is about the people of Jamaica who many of them are hurting, they don't want us to be playing games, and the administration is not playing games, we are listening to them and we are responding,” she said at Wednesday's post-Cabinet press briefing. 

Holness indicated plans to provide reprieves to middle-income earners and vulnerable groups, by reducing the GCT on electricity bills, providing debt forgiveness on water bills, providing a $20,000 giveback to Jamaicans who fall outside of safety net programmes, and waiving fees for all craft vendors in government-owned craft markets and writing off their outstanding fees. 

Some, including Opposition leader Mark Golding, have criticised these plans by the Holness administration, raising concerns of equity with the electricity tax reduction, and calling the reverse tax credit of $20,000 a “blatant vote buying scheme”.

But according to Morris Dixon, the Government has been discussing ways to address the cost of living crisis for some time, and the initiatives announced are the more advanced ones. 

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“This is really the administration listening to the people of Jamaica and doing in a very responsible manner; looking at where is there fiscal space, how can we do it, how can we make sure that every Jamaican can benefit from the suite of initiatives that we have put in place,” she said. 

Finance Minister Fayval Williams, who was also present, noted that the reduction in electricity tax has been in the works since her first stint at the Ministry. 

Williams was appointed state minister in the Ministry of Finance and the Public service in 2016. 

“This has nothing to do with elections, it's a project that was started then, many years ago, and its one that's even more worthy now to get executed and we are doing that,” she said. 

- Sashana Small