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Poverty to Prosperity
Budget Presentation
Gordon House March 19, 2015
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Mr. Speaker, unless we get the economy growing at upwards of 5% on a sustained basis,
the Governments agreement with the IMF will continue to cause Jamaicans unbearable pain
and suffering.
Mr. Speaker, it should be clear even to those who refuse to see, that a PNP government
knows nothing about how to grow the economy.
We in the Labour Party know how to put plans in place to facilitate growth. The Labour
Party is the growth party. The only two periods of sustained growth above 5% in Jamaica,
since independence, occured under a Jamaica Labour Party government.
What this government knows how to do Mr. Speaker is to TAX Jamaicans. This
government does not have a growth plan, this government has a tax plan.
In 2012 they dropped $19.4 Billion Dollars in taxes on us. In 2013, they slapped us with
$15.9 billion dollars. We did not escape in 2014 as they came to this house and added $6.7
billion dollar in taxes to the backs of the Jamaican people.
This year Mr. Speaker, they even tried to trick us by saying that the gap in the budget was
only 10.35 billion but now we know the true story that there is another 12billion that must
be raised in order to meet the IMF target.
If government cannot collect the additional $12 billion through compliance,
don‟t be surprised if you wake up one morning and find that the Minister of
Finance drop an additional $12 billion in taxes.