Seaga CITING CRUCIAL cuts in the Government's 2002-2003 Budget, Edward Seaga, leader of the JLP, says the country was not only in a financial crisis but that Dr. Omar Davies, the Finance and Planning Minister, had few options left at his disposal.
"It was clear the country is broke" and that Dr. Davies has been reduced to nothing more than a "cashier", considering that the minister "has allocated virtually no money to spend at his discretion," Mr. Seaga said at a fund-raising dinner at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston, Saturday night. The dinner was put on by Norman Horne, the party's candidate for Manchester Central in the upcoming general election.
"At last, the truth is out," Mr. Seaga said. "We know for certain now, because authoritatively it has been stated that the country is broke. The only thing that we have money for is to pay debt."
He said that funds generally earmarked annually to be spent at the Finance Minister's discretion, were now virtually non-existent in the new budget.
"There is very little that is new, hence, he (Davies) has now been reduced to the role of being not a Minister of Finance, but a cashier," said Mr. Seaga. " ... It is poetic justice that this should have happened, because the Government having 'FINSACKED' the private sector has now found that it has been 'FINSACKED' itself."
He said that as a result of financing FINSAC bad debts, the Government would now have to devote $20 billion every year for the next 10 to 15 years to deal with the debt.
"What that means is that we have to cut and carve from the existing ministries. I hope that the revenues can perform. It also means that in the future, there would have to be substantial tax increases which would follow the Government's plan," Mr. Seaga said.
The Ministry of Finance and Planning got the lion's share of the Budget tabled in Parliament last Thursday - $71.8 billion in capital expenditure, giving it a total of $148.7 billion. This amounts to 70.1 per cent of the Budget, and most of it is for paying public sector debt.
