By Robert Hart, Staff ReporterDR. OMAR Davies, Minister of Finance and Planning, has indicated that Government Ministries and departments will have to learn to do more with less in the upcoming fiscal year.
"What has to be apparent is that every ministry, every department, has to seek to do more with less resources. It can't be business as usual," Dr. Davies told journalists at Jamaica House, Hope Road, St. Andrew yesterday.
The Minister's comments came the same day the Council of Presidents of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) called on Government to exercise greater cost constraints.
"Fundamental to going forward is the importance of the Government taking the necessary steps to realise its goal of achieving a balanced budget by 2005/2006," the PSOJ Council of Presidents said in its new year's message released yesterday.
"Management of the country's fiscal deficit to reverse the growth trend of the national debt is critical to this outcome and should include, among other measures, exercising cost constraints, reducing the size of government, while improving the efficiency of the public sector, and divestment of public sector assets."
The PSOJ said that there is need for the merging of the informal into the formal economy and to support the widening of the tax net. "If this is successful, it can ultimately lead to lower rates of taxation," the council said.
NO DRASTIC
TAX MEASURES
Speaking with reporters yesterday, the Finance and Planning Minister suggested that the public should expect no drastic new tax measures when the Government presents the 2004/2005 budget in April. He was responding to queries about the possibility of a major tax plan being announced in the wake of last year's widening of the tax net and the subsequent escalation of the country's financial crisis.
"No (to new taxes). That I can say with some confidence," Dr. Davies remarked before a specially convened five-hour Cabinet meeting.
He, however, was unwilling to give any details on the continuing discussions be-tween the Government and the trade unions on future economic policy moves.
"The first agreement we had with the trade unions is that we don't discuss any details. They have honoured it and I am obliged to honour it," he said.
Dr. Davies' assertion that the Government would have to 'do more with less' was shared by president of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, Michael Ammar.
Speaking to The Gleaner, Mr. Ammar said: "We're hoping to see a more pragmatic approach to expenditure. We (the country) cannot continue to spend as we have been spending."
He added: "We also want them (the Government) to look at the tax side. There are a lot of inequities that need to be worked out."
Yesterday's Cabinet meeting was a continuation of the regular Cabinet meeting held the previous day. Both the Finance Minister and the Minister of Development, Dr. Paul Robertson, indicated that the meeting was being held to look at the national budget.
According to Dr. Robertson, the meeting was 'part of the budget process' for the upcoming fiscal year. "We have started that cycle and we are beginning to look at the budget in detail," he said.
He added: "It is the first special meeting. We took the first brush a week ago, we had regular Cabinet yesterday (Monday), and we have a special meeting today (yesterday) to continue that work."
The Development Minister noted that the process will include all ministries receiving the budget parameters from the Ministry of Finance. The Ministries will then begin to work at how they can fit within the parameters and 'then it goes on to the end of the fiscal year'.
Referring to the 2004/2005 Budget, the Finance and Planning Minister said that the country faces a dilemma in that 'there is a general cry for fiscal restraint and simultaneously a cry for additional expenditure'.
"One good thing is that the country is much more aware of the constraints," he said.
Yesterday's Cabinet meeting precedes a retreat scheduled for this weekend, in which the governing People's National Party (PNP) will be assessing the nation's struggling economy.
Speaking at a Gleaner Editors' Forum in December, PNP general secretary Senator Burchell Whiteman said the party would be looking at what policy changes are required to turn the economy around.
