JUTC bleeds; NWC, FSC also projecting red
Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 10:08 AM
Billions of tax dollars will again be pumped into the cash-strapped Jamaica Urban Transit Company Limited (JUTC) for the 2025-2026 financial year as the state-owned entity is projecting an operating loss of about $13.84 billion and a total loss of nearly $18 billion before a government grant is taken into consideration.
With an allocation of little more than approximately $10.964 billion in government grant, the JUTC is expected to end the new fiscal year with a loss of $6.97 billion.
For years, the company has been plagued by fuel theft, a problem the management has committed to bring to an end.
In the Jamaica Public Bodies Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for 2025-2026, the Government says the state-owned bus company will seek to improve operational efficiency and expand its reach through increasing its fleet and expanding its routes.
Another major state-owned body, the National Water Commission (NWC), is projecting a deficit of nearly $1.9 billion for the new financial year.
The company plans to invest little more than $10 billion in capital expenditure for the upcoming fiscal year to facilitate infrastructure upgrades, network expansion, and service improvements.
The Financial Services Commission (FSC) - with its mandate to license, regulate, monitor, and supervise the securities, insurance, and private pensions industries and to investigate and sanction entities falling under its jurisdiction - is projecting a $327 million deficit in 2025-2026.
The FSC is expected to transition from the current regulatory model to a twin-peaks model for financial sector supervision and regulation, separating prudential supervision from market conduct oversight.
Speaking at a meeting of the Economy and Production Committee of Parliament earlier this year, Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) officials signalled that draft legislation to introduce the twin-peaks model was far advanced.
“We have started to craft legislation – twin-peaks – 10 months. We are trying to get that to Cabinet to come to the House to be passed to give the powers to the regulators, ourselves, and the FSC the power to do market conduct and customer-protection work,” BOJ governor Richard Byles told the committee.