National budget jumps by $11 billion

Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter

The Jamaican Government has tacked on an additional $11.2 billion to the national budget.

A third supplementary estimates tabled in the House of Representatives this afternoon indicates that the budget has moved from $525.2 billion to $536.4 billion.

Recurrent expenses have increased by $3.2 billion and capital by $8 billion.

The lion's share of the capital expenditure is a $5 billion amount to settle arrears to Alcoa for the Jamalco operations.

There is also a $505 million allocation to settle outstanding claims on Sabina Park Development by Astrom Jamaica for Cricket World Cup 2007 arbitration.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com