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But, it’s okay to deplete the Emergency Repair Funds at our Parish Councils,
which are set aside for a rainy day, because “we pass the IMF Test”.
o
And while we plunder the National Housing Trust of $11.4B a year in order
to meet our IMF fiscal targets, the NHT is building less and less units for its
contributors. Columnist Reverend Garnett Roper just this week said that
the NHT will build less than 2,400 houses in 2015, and noting that the NHT’s
present output
“is a betrayal of its purpose and its mandate”.
o
And now, the government proposes to sell people’s land in lieu of property
taxes. How does the government propose to sell parcels of land, many of
which do not even have a registered title? It’s nothing but an old socialist
plan to take away people’s property instead of seeking other solutions to
encouraging compliance.
o
Meanwhile the people of Jamaica are suffering and are finding it more and
more difficult to make ends meet.
o
Under this PNP government, the exchange rate has depreciated by 34%
moving from J$86.00 to US$1.00 to J$115.50 to US$1.00, driving up the
cost of everything including fuel, electricity and food. The average cost of
basic foods and basic necessities have increased by an average of 40% over
the period.
o
This increase has been on the backs of most consumers whose incomes
have not increased, making them poorer and poorerer.
o
Although there are two outstanding surveys of the Jamaica Survey of Living
Condition, we already know that the poverty level over the past three years
has increased to well over 20%.