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4.
What is the cap on the price of crude oil that would trigger a
reimbursement to the government?
5.
If the capped price is not reached, is there any partial refund of the
premium?
6.
What is the actual cost of the premium and the schedule of payments?
7.
Are the gas taxes for the hedge going into a dedicated Fund?
8.
Where in the budget is the hedge premium money?
9.
And if you are paying such a substantial sum from this Hedge, why
refuse to expand the Caribbean Catastrophic Risk Insurance by US$2.0
million to insure against the possible devastation from flooding given
our threats to the environment from natural disasters?
Mr Speaker, I call on the Finance Minister to open up the details on the
Hedge Fund so that we can do some analyses and make our own
assessment as to whether this is a properly structured transaction or not.
As I say this, I am thinking of the CAP transaction in which a deal was
structured and we were told how good this was for Jamaica. Well, Mr
Speaker, we have since seen how much it has cost the country multi-billions
of dollars and so I ask the Finance Minister to publish these details.
Mr Speaker, of importance, the Minister should show us the line item in
this Budget for this Hedge Fund. I have not seen it. In which case the
Minister must explain how he is closing his stated budget gap of $10.4B
when an unbudgeted item of approximately $3.9B is being set aside from
the tax package for the Hedge Fund. How is the remaining gap to be filled?
Lower SLB Loans to Children of the Public Sector
On the face of it, this is a desperate attempt by the government to seek to
ingratiate itself with the public sector given its inability to grant them a
living wage increase.