THIS IS BUDGET WEEK and I am sure that many columnists will use this time to share their thoughts on the Minister of Finance’s presentation and the Opposition Leader’s reply.
I have taken the position to let those who are knowledgeable in accounting and economic affairs comment in detail about the Budget and hopefully do so using language that the average Barbadian can relate to and understand.
There is one thing though that I wish to comment on and that is the new “cellphone tax”, which is to take effect on August 1. Based on information sourced from an online newspaper, the Minister of Finance announced that a mobile airtime excise duty would be imposed at $0.03 per minute for both service providers Lime and Digicel. This is expected to earn the Government $32.7 million annually.
Some concerns many on social media have raised in regards to this tax are as follows:
1. Since cents are no longer in circulation, is the tax really $0.05 per minute since $0.03 would be rounded up to $0.05?
2. Is VAT added to the new tax?
3. How does this apply to pre-paid customers?
4. Will this tax be applied when leaving messages on voicemail and calling customer service?
5. Is the tax per minute only, or part thereof’? If a call is one minute and five seconds, are you charged three cents or six cents? (We may need the waste haulers to help us fight this one.)
6. Who pays the tax – the caller, the receiver or both?
7. Does this apply to specials? For example: talk for two minutes, get the next 58 minutes free. Do you pay for just the two minutes or all the minutes used?
8. Is the tax also embedded in roaming charges?
I only saw about 15 minutes of the minister’s presentation of the Budget so I do not know if more was said. Nonetheless, I have a recommendation.
It seems the tax will be applied to voice airtime in regards to your minutes. Technology has improved significantly over the past few years allowing you to make free phone calls over Wi-Fi and data, which this new tax doesn’t seem to speak to. You can make a phone call using Whatsapp messenger, Facebook Messenger, Viber, Nimbuzz Messenger and many more. A simple Google or YouTube search would provide you with a decent list.
One thing I have recognised over the years is that regardless of if it is Sir Harold St John, Sir Henry Forde, Sir Richard Haynes, David Thompson, Clyde Mascoll, Owen Arthur, Mia Mottley or Christopher Sinckler presenting or replying to a Budget, there will be those in favour and those who oppose. Basically, everyone won’t be satisfied.
NOW and Captain Sawyer
The song Sugar Daddy does indeed speak to a common practice that has been embedded in our Barbadian society and has been going on for decades. I mentioned last week that the National Organisation of Women’s (NOW) comments were unbalanced and here is why.
Immediate past president Marilyn Rice-Bowen had stated: “Captain Sawyer . . . should not be asked to appear at any National Cultural Foundation-sponsored activity this Crop Over season because the lyrics of the tune cast Barbadian women in an unfavourable light.” This may be true, but if this action is being recommended for Captain Sawyer, it should also be recommended for the other artistes who have songs that cast women in an “unfavourable light” and encourage them to degrade themselves on the streets, roads, behind the truck, in the party and in the fete.
It would be interesting to hear why this action wasn’t recommended for the person who sang Fun Friend last year. Does that song represent women in a favourable light? Why criticise Captain Sawyer and not the others?
Additionally, let’s not pretend that it’s only men who want something for something. Women are also just as guilty in this regard. There are many women who use their bodies as weapons and bargaining tools to manipulate men to get what they want; this is also “something for something”. What about those who wear skimpy costumes and those who wear only a panty bottom and body paint to cover their nipples? Is this casting Barbadian women in favourable light?
• Corey Worrell, a former Commonwealth YouthAmbassador, is director of C2J Foundation Inc., a project-based NGO focusing on social development. Email coreyworrell@gmail.com.