SXMElections.com

KINGSTON, Jamaica--Opposition Spokesman on Finance and Planning Audley Shaw says that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been much easier on the current administration than it was on the previous Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government.

However, Shaw says that the Government has failed to capitalise on its good luck, by ignoring the need for growth-inducement strategies.

"Passing the IMF test in and of itself cannot yield the incremental benefits the economy needs," the Opposition spokesman told a JLP press briefing at its Belmont Road headquarters Thursday.

"You know why they are passing these tests so much? It is because they get an easy test. The Government has gotten an easy test," Shaw said.

He noted that tax reform has not been fully implemented, while public sector and pension reforms have been delayed until 2016, although they are pillars of the current extended fund facility (EFF) economic reform programme agreement with the IMF.

"What I was failed about was these very things that they wanted implemented by 2010-2011; and these are the very things that are not being implemented now," said Shaw.

A stand-by agreement was approved by the IMF board for Jamaica under the JLP in February 2010, while Shaw was minister of finance and the public service. However, it unravelled months later when the Government saw it as "bitter medicine" for the country to swallow.

Shaw said that he was hauled over the coals by the IMF for not implementing the reforms, yet the current Government has gotten an extension to 2016 to introduce them. However, he said that the Government has failed to recognise that a companion to passing the IMF tests was a set of growth-inducement strategies.

According to Shaw, the previous Government left a blueprint for growth, which is still available from the Planning Institute of Jamaica. He said that the blueprint included the following strategies:

* A reduction in transfer taxes and stamp duties to stimulate real estate and construction activities;

* Provide crop incentives for small farmers severely affected by drought;

* Integrate a systematic and purposeful way for the tourism market into the local agricultural sector;

* Carry out an urgent review of the Omnibus incentive legislation to see how it can be changed to allow tourism to maintain competitiveness in the region; and

* Fast-track the transformation of the public sector in line with the recommendations of the transformation unit. ~ Jamaica Observer ~