Govt. to close MTHL and reinvest assets

Jamaica's government has approved the closing on March 31 of Metropolitan Transport Holdings Limited (MTHL), the holding company for the state-run Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), the Jamaica Observer reported. MTHL had assests of more than 4bn Jamaican dollars (US$66.3mn), the paper said, while commercial functions of the company will now be incorporated within the mandate of other public sector entities. MHTL's functions could be transferred or merged with the JUTC, the Commissioner of Lands or the transport & works ministry. Bus depot lands will be granted to the Commissioner of Lands and the value of building improvements may go to the JUTC. This arrangement ensures the government retains ownership, the paper quoted information minister Burchell Whiteman as saying. MTHL, an agency also under the transport & works ministry, had acquired and leased more than 450 buses serving capital Kingston under the JUTC's management. The JUTC is expected to lose US$21.5mn during the 2003-2004 financial year, while the MTHL has been profitable to project US$143,000 in net surplus for 2003-2004, the paper added.