BLP legacy: replaced 11 indirect taxes with VAT at zero, seven and a half and 15 per cent with the majority of food items zero rated; wrote off $12 million in consumption tax arrears, interest and penalties for the manufacturing sector; and reduced import tariffs to meet CARICOM obligations.
BARBADIANS’ SENSE OF well-being, already severely weakened over the past four years of Democratic Labour Party (DLP) rule, got another serious jolt recently with the warning that their economy was staring another horrendous downgrade in the face unless the Government moved swiftly to decisively reduce the high and unsustainable deficits it has been running since coming into office in 2008.
While this scary message had been heard several times before, this time the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) could not be accused of preaching doom and gloom and undermining public and investor confidence for narrow partisan political purposes.
For the source was new, credible, authoritative and highly professional in the person of Harold Codrington, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados. Speaking bluntly, Codrington observed that the rating agencies had to be convinced that the Government was “committed to fiscal consolidation”, admitting that “right now we are on the verge of another downgrade”.
Among other things, Barbadians were confused by this most recent alarm bell, coming as it did so soon after no less an official than Central Bank Governor Dr Delisle Worrell himself had announced that the economy had “stabilized”.
For they wondered how an economy could have “stabilized” while their quality of life was still being devastated by continued rising unemployment, prices and inflation.
Now, unlike past attempts by the Central Bank and Finance Minister Chris “Unclear” Sinckler to make the public feel that assessment by international credit rating agencies like Moody’s and Standard & Poors did not matter much, and because of what has been happening in Europe with Greece, Italy and France among other nations, Barbadians know differently. Especially with recent news that Moody’s warning to Britain of a possible downgrade of economy had been immediately described by its government as a “wake-up call”.
Just like trained economists Owen Arthur and Clyde Mascoll had immediately done, the British government, unlike the DLP, quickly recognized the damage that downgrade to junk bond status would cause.
The BLP has been stressing that steps can be taken to avoid junk bond status and the accompanying loss of international confidence, increased cost of borrowing internationally and locally and threats to our currency and foreign exchange earnings.
Because unlike the DLP, the BLP has gifted economists in its ranks, we are convinced that despite international difficulties steps can be taken domestically to bring us growth like with Singapore and even Guyana and Haiti.
As University of the West Indies’ Dr Tennyson Joseph so pointedly wrote on February 14: “Ideological depth and technocratic competence can yield new approaches to addressing situations otherwise defined as insurmountable.” That’s what the BLP has proven for all of its near 74 years, most recently with Owen Arthur’s leadership that brought us the longest ever period of sustained progress and prosperity.
That’s why Barbadians say they always have money with the BLP in government.
• Beresford Leon Padmore is a pseudonym for the Barbados Labour Party.
