A review of the three Budgets presented by the current Government of Barbados would suggest that the burden of economic adjustment has been placed squarely on the shoulders of the middle class. Such an approach conforms to the announced ideological commitment of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) to the poor and working class on the one hand, and the developmental imperative of appeasing global and domestic capital on the other.
Between the support of the poor on one hand, and the deference to capital on the other, the only room left is for taxation of the middle class as the dominant policy response.
The DLP’s first Budget, whilst applauded by the working class for the “free bus rides” initiative, targeted the professional sectors through a significant increase in the cost of their annual licence fees. Also increased were road taxes and vehicle licence fees. This was the first tentative attack on the middle class.
Subsequent blows have been far more overt, and it reached a crescendo in the November Budget of 2011.
Among the measures which hurt the middle class were the removal of tax concessions for credit union savings, the limits placed on free education, the taxation of travel and entertainment allowances, the administrative and economic adjustments to the National Health Service and the increase in the VAT to 17.5 per cent.
On top of these have been the ongoing increases in the price of petrol due to the new market-driven pricing mechanism, as well as continuing increases in the price of foodstuff against which there have been no deliberate policy measures.
One of the telling sidebars of the November 2011 Budget was the hasty exclusion of the hotel sector from the VAT increases, a reflection of the ideological commitment to cushioning foreign capital. In contrast, middle-class non-nationals, many of whom pay astronomically high levels of taxation and who contribute to national development, were denied free health care which their taxes help to sustain.
Consequently, public opinion appears to be coalescing in favour of easing the burden of the middle class. First, it was the Back Page story in the February 10 Daily Nation, which quoted the National Union of Public Workers general secretary and president as indicating that “the 20 per cent tax imposed on travel allowances for public servants . . . had created hardship for over 7 000 workers”.
Next, the February 18 Weekend Nation carried a commentary from Caswell Franklyn that decried the taxation of travel allowances imposed on travelling officers. Finally Ricky Singh’s Our Caribbean column highlighted the injustice meted out to immigrants by the new health measures.
The Government should take heed. The middle class constitutes the “floating voter”. Whilst it demonstrates neither the loyalty of the working class, nor the opportunism of capital, it is however, the most politically engaged class.
Its muffled cry of anguish should not be ignored.
