There is so much hardship in Barbados now that the poor and middle class need an immediate ease in taxation to give them more spending power.
Democratic Labour Party (DLP) political leader Ralph Thorne said this was why an administration led by him would reduce value added tax (VAT) from 17.5 per cent to 15 per cent”.
“They [the Barbados Labour Party] have indicated to you quite clearly that they are not committed to tax relief,” Thorne said in Speightstown on Tuesday night, as the DLP mounted its election platform in support of St Peter candidate Jason Phillips.
“We have told the people of Barbados, even in advance of the launch of our manifesto, that we consider it critically important that the burden of taxation must be removed from the poor and the middle [class] in this country.
“This country will not progress until the poor and the middle [class] . . . have their spending power enhanced. We believe that and we believe that tax relief in the form of [reduced] VAT must be offered to the people of Barbados. It must be done.
“I remind you that when this Government came to office in 2018, it promised to lower VAT and it has never done it and we know that VAT must be lowered. It must be, and now they’re saying . . . the reduction of VAT is not a strategy that they intend to pursue.”
Thorne added: “Why did they create a VAT-free basket of goods? They have no credibility on this issue. If that is not a measure that is intended to benefit the people of Barbados, why did they create a basket of goods that were free of VAT?
“That is their own admission to you that relief is required in this country but for some reason, they do not wish to go farther. This Democratic Labour Party will go farther and this Democratic Labour Party is committed to the fiscal policy that VAT must be reduced from 17.5 per cent to 15 per cent. We are committed to that.”
Responsibility
Thorne argued that “while we keep our eyes on the foreign reserves, we must keep our hands . . . on the shoulders of the majority in this country who are finding spending difficult to do because they do not have enough to spend”.
“The economists will have to admit . . . that when spending increases, it stimulates the economy, there is growth in the economy and when you have growth in the economy, more money circulates in the economy and there’s the spill-off effect,” he said.
“Businesses benefit and when businesses benefit, employment is created.
“So that we are hearing that the economy is doing well but the reality is that the economy is doing well for the very wealthy, the economy is not doing well for us. The economy is not going well for the middle [class] and the poor.
“Taxation must be not only wise but it must be what we call progressive, and taxation is progressive when people bear the responsibility of taxation based on their means. In other words, you don’t over tax the people at the bottom and under tax the people at the top, and . . . this is what the Barbados Labour Party Government has been doing,” he asserted.
Thorne also said the public transportation system was now a burden on those who could least afford to catch two and three buses to get to and from work, adding it must be reformed.
Link
He said a DLP administration would “decentralise transport out of Bridgetown and move various transport centres . . . across the country” and “ [would] redesign a transport system to stop people from having to catch so many buses to get to work”.
“For many years we . . . have experienced the transport system that has focused on Bridgetown and movement along the south [coast], movement along the middle of Barbados and movement along the west coast,” he said.
“That transport system needs to be reformed. It needs to be restructured because there’s a link between transport and commerce. It is about moving people from their homes to work or to places of commerce where they spend money.”
His view was that over the last 30 to 50 years, “Bridgetown ceased to be the main commercial area in Barbados” but the transport system “has not recognised that”.
(SC)
