Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Chris Sinckler (left), makes a point while IDB Representative, Juan Carlos De La Hoz Vinas, listens during a signing ceremony yesterday at Government Headquarters.
Government is moving ahead with the budgetary proposals outlined earlier this month, but Finance and Economic Affairs Minister, Christopher Sinckler, says they are prepared to listen to any good suggestions on how to tackle the country’s fiscal challenges.
Sinckler made the point to media personnel yesterday afternoon at Government Headquarters, after signing a US$34 million loan agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank to finance the execution of a programme dubbed “The Deployment of Cleaner Fuels and Renewable Energy in Barbados”.
Minister Sinckler explained that Government is at present defining out any changes that have to be made to the proposed measures and added that the Central Bank, working with the banking sector, will shortly issue guidance notes on the operation of the two per cent commission on foreign exchange.
Moreover, he noted that the Barbados Revenue Authority and his Ministry will also soon be issuing guidance notes relative to the National Social Responsibility Levy (NSRL), which like the two per cent commission is to come into effect on July 1.
But even with that said, the Finance Minister made it clear that Government has not closed the door to any ideas and is open to discussion, but he lamented that to date he has not heard any feasible alternatives being put forward.
“The truth is in all of the chatter that you hear from both sides, or all sides, you don’t hear any alternatives. You hear what cannot work, what does not, what should not be done, or what cannot be done; but you never hear people saying this is my alternative. So if you say lower the rate of the NSRL, fair enough, and replace it with what? If you say don’t cut
public sector jobs, which this Government said it is not interested in doing at this time, and then tell me what is the alternative? What is your proposal for achieving fiscal balance?” he said.
To that end, he contended that while they are prepared to sit down with stakeholders and discuss the issues, he wants those persons “to walk with firm, credible and implementable alternatives”. In the absence of such, he indicated that Government has to go with what they have put on the table, as they believe those measures are in the best interest of the country at this time.
“I presented a financial statement and set of budgetary proposals to Parliament after weeks of consultation on a number of different scenarios and proposals and options and measures. We settled on the ones that we think are the least devastating but can achieve the objectives of the Government and those are to one, ensure that we stop the incipient decline in foreign reserves at the basic level… and of course the issue of the fiscal deficit which continues to be too high. Some people say unsustainably high, which is true to some extent, which is leading us to have to borrow more money each year, and particularly to borrow from our Central Bank as other creditors have less appetite for lending Government,” he said.
Noting that Barbados is a small economy, he lamented that the reality we face is there are not many options available to address the challenges. He made the comment while pointing out that unlike bigger economies, Barbados cannot switch out from external earnings into domestic reliance, and instead has to rely on the export of goods and services to earn foreign exchange to be able to maintain the desired standard of living and quality of life, with the least amount of disruption. (JRT)