Tweet
Prime Minister Bruce Golding has admitted that there is some merit to recent criticisms by former Finance Minister Dr. Omar Davies against the Government's $500 million subsidy programme.
Dr. Davies has taken the administration to task over what he says is the poorly structured programme to help persons counter the effects of rising prices.
Mr. Golding says while there is some weight to Dr. Davies' statement, the Government pursued the best option to provide wider coverage for the most vulnerable.
"Dr. Omar Davies has criticisised us because what we did was subsidise products right across the board. Dr. Davies said no we shouldn't have done that, we should have used the PATH programme and only subisidized people on the PATH programme," said Mr. Golding.
"There is merit in what he says because the best way to utilize subsidies is to target the people who need them but we had a problem, the PATH programme has over 200,000 people on it while the Survey of Living Conditions says we have 360,000 people who live below the poverty line,"
"So if we had put all the money into the PATH programme we would have taken care of the 200,000 but there would be another 130,000 poor people who would have got nothing," he continued.
He was responding to a question during the Jamaica House Live call in programme on Wednesday night.
Dr. Davies has taken the administration to task over what he says is the poorly structured programme to help persons counter the effects of rising prices.
Mr. Golding says while there is some weight to Dr. Davies' statement, the Government pursued the best option to provide wider coverage for the most vulnerable.
"Dr. Omar Davies has criticisised us because what we did was subsidise products right across the board. Dr. Davies said no we shouldn't have done that, we should have used the PATH programme and only subisidized people on the PATH programme," said Mr. Golding.
"There is merit in what he says because the best way to utilize subsidies is to target the people who need them but we had a problem, the PATH programme has over 200,000 people on it while the Survey of Living Conditions says we have 360,000 people who live below the poverty line,"
"So if we had put all the money into the PATH programme we would have taken care of the 200,000 but there would be another 130,000 poor people who would have got nothing," he continued.
He was responding to a question during the Jamaica House Live call in programme on Wednesday night.