Opposition Leader, Mia Mottley (centre), heading into Parliament to deliver the Opposition Response to the Annual Financial and Budgetary proposals yesterday. She was joined by St. Michael South-East MP, Santia Bradshaw (left); Executive Assistant, Pat Parris and others.
“A patchwork budget.”
That’s how Leader of the Opposition, Mia Mottley, described the Budget delivered by Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Christopher Sinckler, on Tuesday evening as she maintained that it was lacking in every respect and did nothing to address the issues that Barbados faces. Delivering a fiery response in the Lower House yesterday evening, the St. Michael North East Member of Parliament charged that the Budget was somewhat of an election tool, to appeal to the electorate.
“The Minister himself in the preamble set out clear objectives for the Budget; the measures however that he outlined are not geared towards realising those goals, in the same way that they were not geared in the past five, six years. Indeed Sir, the speech last evening reminded me of a line from Paul Keens-Douglas’ story in which Paul Keens-Douglas refers to the kite with the tail that was join-up, join-up. This speech was a join-up, join speech, reflecting the input of several individuals from varied and varying perspectives and with varied and varying agendas,” she said.
Mottley added, “We saw an attempt to promote the interest of those eating the meat of the fatted calf and of course Sir, we saw and heard the politics as introduced by those whose mission is to have this Government remain re-electable in the sight of the electorate… So the beginning of the speech bore no connection whatsoever to the middle of the passage, and by the ending we were clearly into the general introduction for the General Election campaign of 2017 or 18.”
With that in mind, she maintained that the Finance Minister passed up the opportunity to address the real issues affecting Barbadian households and businesses, the productive sectors in this country and the challenges faced by the Government. She contended then that the hopelessness and frustration of the people will “remain with greater intensity” and the problems which existed before the Budget will continue to plague the country.
“All that this Budget will achieve Sir is to give the Government and the country a little more time before the international community steps in and says enough is enough.”
It is with this in mind that she argued that Tuesday’s Budget, which featured $160 million in new taxes, was Government’s way of presenting a good picture of the economy before the International Monetary Fund’s Board meets on Monday to address the Barbados Draft Article IV Report.
“The Government wanted therefore to show progress given the commitment that it made the International Monetary Fund. This is the most amazing thing. They trumpet a home-grown programme, but in December 2013, we had to meet in here on Black Friday, the same day the IMF was leaving, in order to show that they were prepared to send home people. We are meeting today now to show the IMF that we are prepared to impose another $140 million in taxes, a 160 overall, but a $140 million driven by a tax on imports, and most people don’t even realise it is on domestic production too,” she said.
To that end, she stated that the evidence is there to show that the Government’s taxation measures are not working. Mottley then questioned the Minister’s announcement that a mid-year review will come in October, arguing that the Budget in essence prescribed the medicine before the doctor’s diagnosis.
“And when you go to the doctor you don’t expect the doctor to take general, off-the-shelf medication and give you because they know that every drug is not capable of curing every ailment. What you need is detailed analysis… What we have instead is a rush to judgement, a piecemeal, patchwork, join up-join up set of initiatives to meet the condition of the Democratic Labour Party’s survival, rather than the country of Barbados’ survival and stability,” she charged. (JRT)
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