MINISTER OF Finance and Planning, Dr. Omar Davies, has said that there were no plans to lay off workers in the public sector in order to cut expenditure and reduce the budget deficit.
He pointed out that when it came to civil servants, "What you do is rationalise through attrition."
The Minister said "one has to be careful" about calls for a cut in the public sector, because there was a large number of persons in the lower ranks who would be affected.
The Minister argued that the savings that would accrue from terminating the services of these persons would be minimal in terms of closing the deficit.
Instead, Dr. Davies stressed that one of the main strategies to be used to balance the budget by 2005/06, is to bring the informal sector into the tax net.
It is projected that at March 31, the budget deficit will be about eight per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Citing the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), which proposes to lay off some 300 workers, Dr. Davies explained that in certain instances this had to be done.
The decision to terminate the services of some of the company's employees has been based on huge losses being incurred by the bus company in its operations.
