‘Punish receivers too’

TARGETING THE receivers is one way of dealing with praedial larceny suggested Minister of Housing and Lands Michael Lashley yesterday.His suggestion came during debate on the Income Tax (Amendment) (No.2) Bill, 2010 in the House of Assembly.The amendment is to provide for a rebate to be given to farmers who import agro-processing machinery. The rebate was announced by the Barbados Labour Party administration in 1999 and was to come into effect in April of that year, but the enabling law was never passed.Lashley said that both public education and legislation had to be considered in dealing with praedial larceny, which he noted was severely affecting hard-working farmers.The St Philip North MP said consideration should be given to increasing penalties for both perpetrators and receivers, with particular attention paid to the latter.Lashley also suggested that the Royal Barbados Police Force should institute a special unit to deal specifically with instances of praedial larceny.Touching on the land for landless programme, Lashley said people holding Government leases on land within the programme were prohibited from erecting buildings on the property.However, he noted that this situation needed to be re-evaluated to allow farmers to put up constructions from which they could provide security for their crops.Lashley praised a planned initiative by the Ministry of Agriculture to introduce a school of agriculture in Barbados.He said the hope would be that from as early as primary school people would know that a great future could be had from their involvement in the agriculture sector. (WG)