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PM delivers election Budget presentation with treats for voters
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has delivered a budget presentation filled with promises ranging from new National Housing Trust measures to the abolition of fees at some public health institutions.
Effective May 28, children under 18 years old will benefit from free health care in government hospitals and health facilities.
However this is not applicable to the University Hospital of the West Indies.
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, in her contribution to the 2007/2008 Budget debate, also announced that the government will be establishing a child and adolescent hospital in western Jamaica.
Concerning the indigent, the National Insurance Act will be amended to enable more retirees to qualify for a pension.
This will see an additional 5,000 contributors and dependents becoming eligible for benefits.
These will include old age and invalidity pensions, funeral grants and the national insurance gold health plan.
Prospective homeowners were not left out of the goodies unveiled by the Prime Minister.
She announced three new initiatives which she said were designed to make the dream of home ownership a reality for more Jamaicans.
Among the initiatives is a plan to raise the National Housing Trust (NHT) loan ceiling to from three million to $3.5 million for single applicants.
For joint applicants, the figure will move from six million to seven million dollars effective July 1 this year.
Additionally, on that date, general interest rates will be reduced as well as rates for persons with NHT mortgages.
Persons now paying mortgages of seven and eight per cent will see a reduction of two per cent, to six and five per cent respectively.
Persons paying five per cent will, as of that date, pay four per cent, while those now paying three per cent will pay two per cent.
In the meantime, the Prime Minister expressed support for Finance Minister Dr. Omar Davies' economic model.
The Finance Minister has faced criticism from the Opposition, which poured scorn on the country's soaring debt figure and what it described as a mere 2.6 per cent growth figure last year as evidence that the economic model was not working.
However, Mrs Simpson-Miller dismissed the opposition's argument, citing the 5.8 per cent inflation recorded last year as the lowest in 30 years, an unemployment figure of 9.6 per cent and a decline in interest rates, as signs that the Jamaican "family" is moving forward.
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has delivered a budget presentation filled with promises ranging from new National Housing Trust measures to the abolition of fees at some public health institutions.
Effective May 28, children under 18 years old will benefit from free health care in government hospitals and health facilities.
However this is not applicable to the University Hospital of the West Indies.
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, in her contribution to the 2007/2008 Budget debate, also announced that the government will be establishing a child and adolescent hospital in western Jamaica.
Concerning the indigent, the National Insurance Act will be amended to enable more retirees to qualify for a pension.
This will see an additional 5,000 contributors and dependents becoming eligible for benefits.
These will include old age and invalidity pensions, funeral grants and the national insurance gold health plan.
Prospective homeowners were not left out of the goodies unveiled by the Prime Minister.
She announced three new initiatives which she said were designed to make the dream of home ownership a reality for more Jamaicans.
Among the initiatives is a plan to raise the National Housing Trust (NHT) loan ceiling to from three million to $3.5 million for single applicants.
For joint applicants, the figure will move from six million to seven million dollars effective July 1 this year.
Additionally, on that date, general interest rates will be reduced as well as rates for persons with NHT mortgages.
Persons now paying mortgages of seven and eight per cent will see a reduction of two per cent, to six and five per cent respectively.
Persons paying five per cent will, as of that date, pay four per cent, while those now paying three per cent will pay two per cent.
In the meantime, the Prime Minister expressed support for Finance Minister Dr. Omar Davies' economic model.
The Finance Minister has faced criticism from the Opposition, which poured scorn on the country's soaring debt figure and what it described as a mere 2.6 per cent growth figure last year as evidence that the economic model was not working.
However, Mrs Simpson-Miller dismissed the opposition's argument, citing the 5.8 per cent inflation recorded last year as the lowest in 30 years, an unemployment figure of 9.6 per cent and a decline in interest rates, as signs that the Jamaican "family" is moving forward.