Betrayed – Mia vows to overturn decision on student fees

Finance Minister Chris Sinckler has been accused of unleashing the ultimate betrayal of Barbadians through the austerity programme of his 2013 Budget and Opposition Leader Mia Mottley says the country has no choice but to go back to polls.
She insisted that voters had not given the current administration a mandate at the general elections six months ago to impose measures that include students paying university tuition fees, pending job cuts with the merger and possible elimination of some statutory bodies, slashing of the reverse tax credit, and $140 million in cuts to key entities such as the Sanitation Service Authority and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
Apart from branding the measures “invalid”, Mottley, in her first Budget response since regaining leadership of the Opposition from St Peter MP Owen Arthur, pledged yesterday in Parliament to overturn the decision to impose tuition fees on Barbadians at the University of the West Indies (UWI).
And with Government holding just a two-seat majority over the Opposition in the House, Mottley begged some members of the administration to side with the Opposition in voting against the Budgetary Proposals when the debate concludes tonight.