Government has been presented with a ten-point proposal by the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) designed to save the jobs of thousands of public workers and raise millions of dollars in revenue to offset the country’s $400 million deficit.
The sweeping proposals include a reduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT) from 17.5 per cent to 15 per cent, with a reduction of interest and penalties for outstanding payments; a reintroduction of the $1 bus fare for schoolchildren; a 30 per cent cut in politicians’ allowances; sacrifice of a week’s pay by public officers in the first quarter of the year and taxes on cellular phones and fuel oils.
These measures were put together after consultations with and input from NUPW members, and delivered to the Ministry of the Public Service yesterday afternoon.
President of the NUPW, Walter Maloney, told a Press conference at the union’s Dalkeith Road, St Michael headquarters that the proposed measures were not “pie in the sky” but were “doable” and could bring “a minimum of displacement within the public sector”.
