Finance and Public Service Minister Audley Shaw said $7.2 billion has been set aside in the Budget for divestment legacy payments. Of this amount, he said $4.5 billion represented payments associated with Air Jamaica, and the Sugar Company of Jamaica, $2.6 billion.
“It should be noted, however, that in respect of Air Jamaica, that is not the fulsome amount of money that has to be paid for Air Jamaica for this fiscal year. The total amount of support for Air Jamaica, in terms of legacy payments, interest payments and servicing existing bonds on the international bond market, … will be about $10 billion.”
He was making his opening presentation yesterday at a meeting of the Standing Finance Committee of Parliament in Gordon House.
Air Jamaica was divested in May 2010 to Trinidad’s Caribbean Airlines.
The legacy payments represented money owing from aircraft that the airline had leased.
