Shaw: Proposal for utilising dormant funds heading to Cabinet

MINISTER OF Industry, Commerce Agriculture and Fisheries Audley Shaw is ready to put a proposal before Cabinet outlining the framework that would govern how the State would utilise funds pulled from dormant accounts at commercial banks once the 15-year wait period is reduced.

During his keynote address at the 67th staging of the Denbigh Agricultural, Industrial and Food Show in Clarendon on Monday, Shaw said that the Government would be seeking to follow the global trends regarding how dormant funds are treated.

Highlighting that in other countries funds go back to the government after seven years and that in the United States it takes five, he said that in Jamaica, a 15-year wait is no longer acceptable.

Shaw said he now has a proposal from a consultant to be put before Finance Minister Nigel Clarke with the intention of having it handed over to Cabinet for a decision.

The consultant’s recommendations are expected to cover how the money should be used and how the fund should become operational so that the Government can get access to the money.

When the funds, estimated in the region of $40 billion to $50 billion, are released, they would go towards creating that special fund that would provide low-interest loans to small and medium-sized enterprises and help spur agricultural development.