Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Finance Minister Audley Shaw have expressed displeasure at the pace at which building approvals are being granted by the parish councils.

Golding yesterday stopped just short of saying the parish councils were standing in the way of development.

"I don't think that we can continue to allow an issue that is so important not only to national development in its broad sense, but the things that have the potential to create employment, to be the subject of bureaucracy to which it is now subjected," Golding said in Parliament yesterday.

At the same time, Shaw, who announced a reduction in transfer tax and stamp duties, called on the local authorities to speed up building approvals.

"We want to urge the KSAC (Kingston and St Andrew Corporation) and the parish councils to join with us in ensuring that they are able to expedite the approval process," Shaw said.

Pm's aim

When the Jamaica Labour Party took power in 2007, Golding promised he would reduce the time in which building approval is granted. The prime minister's aim was 90 days for all building approvals.

West St Mary Member of Parliament Robert Montague was empowered by Golding to drive the process of reducing the bureaucracy.

Montague told The Gleaner that it was taking too long for the parish councils to approve developments of nine lots and over.

The prime minister told Parliament that local authorities have "resisted quite strenuously" the proposed change.

"We have allowed an adequacy of time for consultation; they do not relish the fact of their being deprived or this responsibility being divested of them," he said.

"The time has come when the Government is going to have to divest its authority and its will. It is not to exclude the local authorities."

With the local economy taking a pounding from the effects of the global recession, the Government is pulling out all the stops to create jobs and stimulate economic activity.

With this in mind, Shaw has moved forward the date for a further reduction in transfer tax and stamp duty to August 1. The finance minister said the move to reduce stamp duty and transfer tax, as well as the call to speed up building approvals, was aimed at stimulating a recovery in the real estate sector.

Shaw announced in April that the rates on stamp duty and transfer tax would be reduced to three per cent and four per cent, respectively, effective January 1, 2010.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com