Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler is warning that the Barbados Labour Party’s (BLP) “bucket full of giveaways” will cost about $700 million.
Calling this “madness” that the Treasury cannot handle, he urged Bajans: “Put on your thinking caps, reject that nonsense in 2018.”
Sinckler knocked the BLP’s promises announced by leader Mia Mottley during the current General Election campaign and contained in the party’s manifesto. He criticised the proposals during a Democratic Labour Party meeting at West Terrace, St James, on Thursday night.
“It is madness because in order to do all of that, [to] buy garbage trucks, buy buses, eliminate the [National Social Responsibility Levy], cut back the [value added tax] to 15 per cent, pay tuition fees, fix every flat roof in Barbados, increase pension, abolish road tax .…will take close to $700 million,” the St Michael North West candidate warned.
“Something is wrong with her…. She has injured herself intellectually because [of] the amount of rubbish that she is putting out for people in Barbados to consume,” he said of Mottley.
Sinckler told the meeting that the BLP leader’s proposal to increase non-contributory pensions was a “spectacular display of ignorance” and he asked: “When does it stop?”
“But when you are done.…not only will the Treasury be empty of persons because they had to move out and go to the Ministry of Housing, but it ain’t gonna have no money neither. She is the clearest and most present danger to the Treasury of Barbados.
“I feel that you should get a visa to go into Bridgetown and she should be made to pay for one for which she would be denied permission to pass the Treasury – you can’t let her in there.”
Sinckler said while he acknowledged that Barbadians were feeling the “pain” of fiscal adjustment, all Barbadians had to sacrifice something for the future good of the country.
“Stay with the Democratic Labour Party. We have walked the tough road, we have taken the hard decisions, it is now time to reap the benefits and we are not turning over this economy to be wrecked,” he said. (SC)
