Fight on!

Barbadians are in a fight to maintain their freedom.

That’s the view of Member of Parliament for St. George South, Dwight Sutherland. He was speaking on Tuesday to the Opposition’s motion for definite urgent public importance, calling on Government to convene, without delay, a meeting of the full Social Partnership.

“Some 80 years ago we fought for freedom from the plantocracy, we fought from freedom from the merchant class, we never thought that come 80 years later that the people in this country – whether public sector personnel, private sector personnel or the masses – would be fighting for freedom from the Democratic Labour Party,” he said.

That fight, Sutherland contended, is to maintain Barbadians’ freedom of speech, to march, to express one’s self and the freedom to live comfortable lives in this country.

“We are living in a way that Barbadians are being robbed of their dreams and being denied of a better Barbados,” he said.

Reflecting on the May 30, 2017 Budget, which increased the rate of the National Social Responsibility Levy (NSRL) from two to ten per cent, the St. George South MP maintained that the increase should never have been introduced, contending that it put undue burden on people. He made the comments while questioning whether the Levy, which was first introduced in 2016 to finance critical aspects of health care, purchase a new fleet of trucks for the Sanitation Service Authority and to undertake a national cleanup campaign, met those objectives.

“Let’s ask the member on the other side, the Member for St. Michael North West, how much of these items have been achieved… But now they have come in 2017 budgetary proposals and increased the National Social Responsibility Levy to ten per cent. Now that is an increase of eight per cent and that is supposed to raise some $218 million by the end of the financial year and over a two-year period $500 million,” he said.

Sutherland’s comments came as he insisted that neither the unions nor the private sector were satisfied with the NSRL and it needed to be revisited. He maintained that while Cabinet is responsible for setting policy, the tripartite arrangement initiated by the Democratic Labour Party in the form of the Social Partnership, recognises the importance of input from key stakeholders into policy and economic development in this country, and he is adamant that they should
always be consulted. (JRT)

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