House to comb through expenditure, revenue measures

The Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives will begin its examination of the Estimates of Expenditure over two days next week.

The committee, which comprises all members of the Lower House, will also for the first time review the revenue measures that were tabled recently in Parliament alongside the Estimates of Expenditure.

Members of the House, particularly from the parliamentary opposition, are expected to drill down and request details on how the Government intends to pull in $18 billion in new taxes for the 2026-2027 fiscal year, in addition to an extension of the $11.4-billion extraction from the National Housing Trust to help fund the Budget.

The Standing Finance Committee will meet next Thursday and Friday.

With the parliamentary opposition having increased its number of members in the House after the 2025 general election, it has been speculated that the two days might not be sufficient to cover an extensive examination of both expenditure and revenue measures.

In the meantime, the examination of the expenditure and revenue measures will be followed on March 10 by the opening of the Budget Debate by Fayval Williams, minister of finance and the public service.

Williams’ presentation will be followed by her Opposition counterpart, Julian Robinson, on March 12.

On March 17, Opposition Leader Mark Golding will make his contribution to the Budget Debate and two days later, on March 19, Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness will participate in the debate.

Williams will close the debate on March 24.

editorial@gleanerjm.com