People ‘can’t take any more taxes’

PARODYING THE CHARACTER Boxer in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Opposition Senator Wilfred Abrahams says the mantra of Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler seems to be “I will tax harder”.
Abrahams, speaking during debate in the Upper House on the controversial Municipal Solid Waste Tax Bill 2014 – which proposes to tax landowners 0.3 per cent of the site value of their improved land – said the situation of continued taxation on the backs of Barbadians reminded him of Boxer, whose mantra was “I will work harder”.
He said, however, that even with Drainage Unit workers and other public sector staff going home, and the revenue from various taxes declining across the board, the mantra of the Minister of Finance seemed to be, “I will tax harder”.
Noting that the Municipal Solid Waste Tax was designed by Government to meet a revenue shortfall, Abrahams insisted that reality dictated that Barbadians could not take any more taxation and that, no matter how noble the cause of this tax in terms of financing the disposal of garbage, the Government could not “squeeze blood from a stone”.