KINGSTON, Jamaica – The main opposition People’s National Party (PNP) Tuesday brushed aside as a a “run-with-it, “vote buying scheme”, the promises, including a reduction in the General Consumption Tax (GCT) on electricity as well as a write-off for some National Water Commission (NWC) customers announced by Prime Minister Andre Holness on Sunday.
Opposition and JLP leader, Mark Golding, flanked by PNP members, speaking at news conference on Tuesday (CMC Photo)Addressing the 81st conference of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), Holness ,who is expected to lead the party into the next general election constitutionally due by September 2025, said that the new initiatives should not be regarded solely as promises to the electorate.
“The Jamaican people can see that it is one thing to listen to a bag-a-mouth and a bag-a-promise, but nothing that I have said here is a promise. All of what I have said here is happening, about to happen, or will happen shortly,” said Holness.
“Jamaica today is a different place from Jamaica 10 years ago, and I am very pleased to be with you on the journey in transforming Jamaica. Yes, there are still challenges; yes, there are still hardships; yes, we see that there are inequities…but it depends, my friends, on the perspective you take” he added.
But speaking at a news conference, PNP and Opposition Leader, Mark Golding, flanked by senior members of the party, said the promised reduction in the rate of GCT on electricity will not impact the majority of the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) customers who consume less than 150 kilowatt hours per month of electricity.
Golding said what is needed is strong leadership to reduce the cost of electricity through a transformation of the energy sector and that the PNP has a plan and a shadow minister who will bring modern laws to achieve reduction in electricity bills and massive investment to the energy sector.
The party’s spokesman on energy, Phillip Paulwell, told reporters Jamaica has not seen such gross mismanagement of the energy sector since Independence.
“Rather than pivoting for growth, he is pivoting for election. We have seen tremendous hardship to the consumer, but we’ve also seen, because of the high price of electricity, the lack of growth in our economy.
“Jamaica’s energy costs is one of the highest now in the world, coming from US$0.23 per kilowatt-hour in 2016 when we left office, to at times way over US$0.40 per kilowatt-hour. To solve the energy crisis, you have to have laser-like focus on both energy generation and energy transmission and distribution.”
Paulwell said that the crisis would not be “solved by some half-baked, cynical, hand-wringing scheme at the eleventh hour, on the eve of national elections, to throw little and meaningless goodies at the problem”.
Golding was also critical of the planned measure that would result in whom the prime minister said are vulnerable Jamaicans who are not captured as part of any social intervention programme and who did not benefit from the J$20,000 (One Jamaica dollar=US$0.008 cents) reverse income tax payment will get a one-off payment next year.
“The so-called reverse income tax credit is to be turned into a J$20,000 money giveaway. It is a blatant run-with-it vote-buying scheme for the next election,” Golding said, noting that this was taking place at a time when the economy was contracting and experiencing negative economic growth.
He reminded the government that such “blatant, run-with-it, vote-buying scheme” had backfired, as the recent by-election victories for the PNP had shown that “the Jamaican people are not for sale and are determined to have a change of government”.
The government had last month launched its Reverse Income Tax Credit programme to provide a one-off grant of J$20,000 to eligible individuals who earned less than three million dollars during year of assessment 2023.
The initiative is costing an estimated J$11.4 billion.
