Opposition Leader Bishop Joe Atherley is demanding government do something to ease the cost of living in Barbados

As he addressed the Lower House earlier this week, the leader of the People’s Party for Democracy and Development stated the state is not only a spectator when it comes to pricing, but is also a price shaper.
 “Right now, there is a debate raging in Barbados about the exorbitant increase in prices taking place in commodities across the spectrum in Barbados, starting with energy a little while back. A lot of the hue and cry and the position by government is that these are price increases, inflationary trends that we are importing and over which we have no control.
“My view is and I shared it a few weeks ago…government by its tax structure, government by its duty structure, can help to shape prices and where we are importing some inflationary trends in prices, whether it is energy, or any other commodity or any other import unit, there is a tax structure, there is a duty structure which is applied and government can address itself to redress the increasing escalation in prices by looking at amending its tax and duty structures. That is not rocket science,” he insisted.
During the debate on the National Vending Bill, Atherley stated that price increases impact upon citizens who will not have the money to spend with vendors, who then see sales fall off and revenue diminish.
“So whether it is the impact by the farming community, some of which has been caused by government itself as farmers are still crying from the sewage tax on the water bills. Government did that, you cannot get away from that. When you cause the cost to the farming community to increase, then resulting from that is increased cost to the vending public. When that happens, the guy who usually buys two pounds of onions will buy one,” he added. (JMB)