Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness says his administration’s decision to take J$11.4 billion from the National Housing Trust (NHT) is guided by economic responsibility and the needs of the nation.

“The government isn’t taking the resources from the NHT for, you know, reasons that are not of national importance and concern,” he said.

Holness, who was speaking at the launch of the Chester Creek housing development in Portmore, St Catherine, on Tuesday (March 3), said there is precedent for reallocating funds from the NHT, noting that each time it was to meet national goals.

He indicated that it was first done by former PM PJ Patterson in the 1990s to fund a significant education reform initiative, and again around 2013 to close a fiscal gap.

Holness said it is acknowledged that the NHT funds were contributed on the basis that they will be used for housing, and the government cannot indefinitely rely on these funds to address issues outside the trust’s core mandate.

He counterargued that managing the national budget often requires the government to make hard decisions.

“Every Jamaican should seek to understand the issues more deeply than what is presented on the surface because, ultimately, if you don’t take the resources from the NHT and you have a massive deficit… the only options that will remain to you in funding the deficit is either to cut the services to you or raise the taxes,” the prime minister pointed out.

“There are no secret funds anywhere from which the government can deal with deficits…. the international community is not coming to rescue us [and] borrowing is not an option,” added Holness, noting that the government must rely on existing resources.

The NHT was created more than 50 years ago from funds reallocated from the National Insurance Scheme (NIS).