THE?LITTLE?TAX ALLOWANCE I used to get for travel and entertainment, to my astonishment, is to be no more. And I am not amused!
I am told, however, that I should take some comfort in the fact that neither Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler nor any other minister will be benefiting any more from travel and entertainment allowance either. But is that a fact?
And do “employees” who will now be deprived presumably from January 1, 2011, include “managers” and “bosses”?
I didn’t hear Mr Sinckler make the distinctions on Monday afternoon. I heard him vow to give the unvarnished truth “upfront” – and probably centre – and so long as finance and economic matters fall under his watch.
And so I guess a “pellucid” explanation will be coming much sooner than later.
The minister will need to unravel too the juxtaposing of no more travel allowance and the painful application of a 50 per cent jump in the excise tax on gasolene.
I am not laughing either about the removal of the allowance for savings in the credit union, and I don’t buy Mr Sinckler’s weak excuse for its elimination that Barbadians don’t need to be encouraged to save with the credit unions.
Limp attempt
Really, Barbadians need to be able to save now more than ever – with a credit union more than with a bank for obvious reasons.
So the minister’s allusion to the credit unions now controlling “significant assets in the country” and the largest ones being “bigger than some banks” is a limp attempt to spin the indefensible.
It cannot be a terrible thing encouraging people – or seeing the need – to save and invest in a financial institution that they literally own. The credit union is the one entity in this country known by reputation to have significantly empowered the ordinary man and woman by cooperative pooling.
It is ironic the two previous Ministers of Finance could place such import on credit union life that between them savings and shares allowances ran to a limit of $13 000 a year – Owen Arthur’s $10 000 consolidation allowance in 2007 and David Thompson’s reinstitution of the $3 000 savings limit in addition in 2008.
On the latter occasion Mr Thompson with deep conviction stated: “My Government has strong and deep interest in the development of the cooperatives sector.”
What could have so changed minds in such short time?
Our credit unions are not to be trifled with.
And to think that after all that, Minister Sinckler must go begging banks to reduce their interest difference between what they obtain money at and what they lend to customers.
The minister believes that “if the rest of the country is operating on tighter profit margins, then the banks should too”.
That will be when pigs fly.
Mr Sinckler will yet learn that “responsible corporate citizens” are not necessarily without a passion for greed in so far as profits go – profits unencumbered by charity.
I forego comment on the 50 per cent increase in excise tax on gasolene (to $0.5358 per litre) deferring to the superior and purer mathematical knowledge and understanding of Clyde Mascoll, Dr DeLisle Worrell and Penney Adaiah Greene, the last of whom I am duty-bound to drive everywhere.
And I will say only of the reconfigured dispensing fee for people using the Barbados Drug Service but filling their prescriptions at private pharmacies, that the mantra prevention is better than cure couldn’t have more profound meaning than now. It will benefit one more to eat healthy and exercise – and reduce the risk of the long, tiring polyclinic line.
Not to keep dwelling on the trying and burdensome, I too shared Opposition Leader Owen Arthur’s double delight at the reduction of the shop’s liquor licence.
If nothing more, Sir David Seale’s People’s Market notwithstanding, the price of a vodka and chaser should absolutly come back down – as should that of the rum and coke, of course.
Like mostly everything else, the ramifications – or as some would say, the repercussions – of this Budget of Mr Sinckler’s will take a little while to be dutifully experienced.
I anticipate the pros and cons via CBCTV of these Budgetary Proposals the rest of this day and do not underestimate the comedy I am bound to hear.
