Mottley questions austerity measures

THE woman leading the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) into the next General Election is not impressed with Government’s austerity measures to save Barbados’ economy which is in peril.

Opposition Leader Mia Mottley said she is of the view that the measures announced by Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Christopher Sinckler, in the 2017 Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposals, are unlikely to achieve what they have been established to.

Barbadians are now bracing themselves for a rise in cost of living, following an increase in the National Social Responsibility Levy to ten per cent, commission on the sale of foreign exchange and an increase in the excise taxes on gasoline and diesel.

Sinckler said Government expects to generate $542 million from taxes and expenditure cuts, to overcome a deficit of $537.6 million.

However, during her response to the Budget yesterday, Mottley lamented that Barbadians who have been asked in recent years to make sacrifices as Government implements numerous policies and strategies to encourage economic growth, could no longer carry the burden of additional taxes which would make life harder for them.

“I spent my time articulating leadership, because as a leader of this country, no Minister of Finance could bring three of the most regressive taxes that will have a disproportionate burden on poor people, and lower middle income people in this country, who have already been under the strain of over 400 million dollars in new taxes in the last nine years.

“This is like asking a man who have not eaten in two months to go and run a marathon race and carry heavy weights. This simply cannot do it,” Mottley said.

“You beg them to hold strain. You tell them about team Barbados. You tell them that you are going to reach safety this time. You tell them you have this wonderful home-grown strategy and nine years later... All they have to show for their sacrifice is an affective de facto evaluation of their social and economic existence. A de facto devaluation of Barbados yesterday, by these measures that have been put by the Minister of Finance,” she added.

Furthermore, the Opposition Leader described the Budget as one-sided and “worse than going down the hill in White Hill [St. Andrew]”.

She said while Government is also looking forward to achieving a surplus of $4.4 million, “Barbados is not about an exam; Barbados is about people and households, people who have not been able to meet their demands of daily living.”

“We have public servants who have not had a pay increase in this country since 2010, who have faced extraordinary increases in prices of over 40 per cent in that time frame. But we had a Government that could not do without their ten per cent in pay increase. This Government and Cabinet, sought to restore its own ten per cent to its pay, knowing full well what it was bringing a ten per cent [increase] of the National Social Responsibility Levy,” Mottley said.
(AH)