Gov't allocates $60 billion for social, economic recovery and vaccine programme

9:52 pm, Thu February 18, 2021

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Finance Minister Dr. Nigel Clarke - Gleaner file photo

Dr. Nigel Clarke

The government is introducing a social and economic recovery programme under which it has allocated money to source COVID-19 vaccines for up to two million Jamaicans this year.

The Social and Economic Recovery and Vaccine or SERVE Jamaica Programme will see the government spending $60 billion in the 2021/2022 fiscal year.

Finance Minister Dr. Nigel Clarke told the House of Representatives on Thursday $6 billion would be used to buy vaccines.

He said the allocation would allow Jamaica to achieve herd immunity this fiscal year.

“…We are making provisions for the Government of Jamaica to finance the procurement of and the completion of coronavirus vaccination for 2 million Jamaicans, whether its double dose or single depending on the supplier madame speaker,” Dr. Clarke said.

Dr. Clarke outlined the other allocations under the SERVE Jamaica Programme.

“$1 billion for PPEs, $1 billion for re-agents…$2 billion dollars for regional authorities…and $500 million for additional COVID related expenditure,” he said.

Most of the funds for the SERVE Jamaica programme will come from a $33 billion dividend payment from the Bank of Jamaica.

The Finance Minister says it's a one-off payment.

“After a long period of Bank of Jamaica losses, low profits and high profit volatility including a loss of $6.8 billion in just 2017, the Bank of Jamaica made a profit of $9.1 billion in 2018, $15.8 billion in 2019 and $9.9 billion in 2020,” Dr. Clarke told the parliament.

The finance minister tabled a $830 billion budget for the 2021/2022 fiscal year on Thursday.

This is less than the $850 billion which the government will spend during the current fiscal year which ends on March 31.

“Before somebody run off and print headline ‘expenditure down’ etcetera, please understand that that is as a result of lower debt service costs this year and lower volume of loans to public bodies this year than last year,” he said.

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