MINISTER of Finance and Planning Dr Peter Phillips yesterday tabled a $641-billion expenditure budget for the new fiscal year, 2015/16, which starts on April 1.

MINISTER of Finance and Planning Dr Peter Phillips yesterday tabled a $641-billion expenditure budget for the new fiscal year, 2015/16, which starts on April 1.

The primary increase is approximately 18 per cent, with expenditure increasing by approximately $102 billion over the $539 billion for the current fiscal year, which ends on March 31.

JA Govt.

The estimates comprise $432.6 billion in recurrent (housekeeping) expenditure and $209 billion in combined Capital A and B expenditures, which cover estimates for projects financed solely by the Government, and projects financed primarily by external sources, respectively.

Audley Shaw, Opposition spokesman on finance and planning, pointed out in an interview with the Jamaica Observer last night that, as is customary, the finance and planning ministry has gobbled up the bulk of the resources -- over $200 billion -- primarily to pay down the country's debt.

According to Shaw, the budget would be used mainly to reduce the debt, while there was some funding available for compensation for public sector workers and outstanding Government arrears.

"There is nothing in this budget that you could call a growth budget. It is definitely not the growth budget that the country was looking for," Shaw insisted.

But Dr Phillips told a press conference at his ministry following the tabling of the estimates that the focus was to reduce the extent of the public debt as measured by the debt-to-GDP ratio.