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onespotmedia.com finance minister Dr. Nigel Clark has blasted the opposition spokesman on finance
for comments he made during his contribution to the budget debate in closing the budget debate dr
clark argued that julian robinson's speech was riddled with inaccuracies now washington brown
has been covering the debate and now joins us in studio fashion all right thank you so much herman
so the opposition raised several concerns during the budget debate from price increases to the
government's decision to use money from the bank of jamaica profits to fund the budget well today
the finance minister got a chance to respond the opposition spokesman on finance argued that
many jamaicans are hungry because they cannot afford basic food items due to price increases
but finance minister dr nigel clark argued that the price increased data presented by julian
robinson were just not credible he questioned why the opposition did not get reliable information
from the consumer affairs commission why would the opposition spokesman come to parliament with
his data gathered from one degree unnamed source these are some of the price increases outlined by
the opposition spokesman cooking oil 85 in 2016 is now 220 dollars an increase of 158 percent
has moved from 55 to 100 an increase of 81 but dr clark said the prices used by the opposition
spokesman were completely off arguing that the consumer affairs commission data tells the real
story according to the consumer affairs commission corned beef moved by seven between 17 and 31
over the five years which is approximately three percent to five percent per year
cooking oil by 16 to 22 or approximately three or four percent per year
rise by 36 percent or approximately seven percent seven percent a year
pre-packaged dark sugar max madam speaker all of those things he reported inaccurate information on
dr clark also took on the opposition leader saying that his comments on the bank of jamaica dividend
were misleading in his contribution to the budget debate mark golding blasted the government
for using money from the boj to fund the budget arguing that the wholeness administration
is using devaluation as a tax but like the prime minister dr clark is asking where the
boj dividends for the years the pnp was in office madam speaker the audited financial
statements of the boj show that between 2000 and 2007 and again between 2012 and 2016
11 years when the opposition was in power using mr gold's analysis of just adding it all up
the bank of jamaica enjoyed foreign exchange dividends of approximately
728 million u.s dollars at today's exchange that's 107 billion
i want to know madam speaker where are the dividends
it's why dr clark is giving the opposition this advice they say that
when you live in a glass house do not throw stones
and modern speaker it is even more evident that if you take a little golden dust and you throw
on the glass house it is still only a glass hole on this issue
now fashion we understand that the weekend lockdowns also came up for discussion what kind
of assistance did the finance minister say people will receive well herman the finance minister says
funds will be made available to ease the burden that the vulnerable will face during the lockdown
he says the money will be disbursed through the constituency development fund cdf on april 1.
the government of jamaica will provide support in aggregate in aggregate equivalent to
2 million per constituency but
meaning that we'll have to take account of local government as well right sometimes
with the unknowns constituencies councils say hey what about me so a total of 126 million dollars
through uh representatives to assist citizens during this these weekends of lockdown
all right thank you very much vachen for that report
and the house of representatives this afternoon passed changes to the disaster risk management
act local government minister desmond mckenzie has proposed
40 new fines of up to 500 thousand dollars for breaches of kovitz 19 orders mr mckenzie says
on the lower end persons could be fined five thousand dollars for not wearing a mask in public
and ten thousand dollars for breaking curfew there are also fines for breaking quarantine
persons who normally resides in jamaica and on returning to the island from overseas
fail or refuse to remain in quarantine or to obey the other directives or order
is liable for a fine of 25 000 if a person who does not normally resides in jamaica or who is a
tourist refused to stay inside the resilient corridor as required the penalty is 30 000
the fine for unlawful church services and funerals is one hundred thousand dollars it's the same for
illegal illegally operated bars and on the higher end hotels could be charged five hundred thousand
dollars for breaches who operate a hotel a resort cottage that is not licensed under the tourist
board act certified by the tourism product development committee are located within the
resilient corridor is subjected to a fixed penalty of five hundred thousand dollars this fine is also
also applies to any hotel resort that reaches corvid 19 protocols and to any night club
amusement park water attraction that is attracted that is operated when it is ordered closed