{"id":23972,"date":"2019-02-05T17:41:06","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T21:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=23972"},"modified":"2019-02-05T17:41:08","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T21:41:08","slug":"st-vincent-opposition-leader-claims-no-love-in-the-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/st-vincent-opposition-leader-claims-no-love-in-the-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"ST. VINCENT-Opposition Leader claims ‘no love in the budget’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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 Opposition Leader Dr. Godwin Friday on Tuesday invoked the Bible and described as \u201csounding brass and tinkling cymbals\u201d the EC$1.067 billion (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents)  budget presented to Parliament by Finance Minister Camillo Gonsalves.<\/p>

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\u201cYou would have thought, Mr. Speaker, that we had won the lottery here in St. Vincent.  All these new terms and project that, I suppose, are intended to dazzle not just the member of this Honourable House, or the electorate, as elections are around the corner,\u201d Friday said as the debate began on the fiscal package that Gonsalves presented to Parliament late Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his presentation, Gonsalves announced an increase in the taxes on gasoline, diesel, tobacco, sweetened drinks, and landing fees at the Argyle International Airport.<\/p>

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According to the figures presented in Parliament, recurrent expenditure, inclusive of amortisation and sinking fund contributions, is estimated at EC$844.7 million with capital expenditure of EC$222.5 million.<\/p>

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In his contribution, Friday said that when his New Democratic Party was in office between 1984 to 2001, the then opposition Unity Labour Party (ULP) derided its village roads as \u2018gouti tracks\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he said that the present ULP government is now re-introducing the roads under the Pedestrian Access for Village Enhancement (PAVE) project.<\/p>

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He said the usual work of ministries have been divided up an repackaged as \u201cRenewal at 40\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOld wine in new bottle,\u201d Friday said, adding that the Finance Minister listed among the things to be done under \u201cRenewal @ 40\u201d, refurbishment of schools and learning resource centres.<\/p>

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\u201cRenewal @ 40\u201d, which a programme of initiatives and activities to celebrate the nation\u2019s 40th anniversary of political independence from Britain, will also include the clean-up of Kingstown, and refurbishment of Heritage Square and other national heritage sites, such as Fort Charlotte.<\/p>

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Friday said that even the finance minister acknowledged that all of these things are part of the work of the ministries, adding that Gonsalves had said that \u201cRenewal @ 40\u201d is a wide-ranging and multifaceted programme of reflection and reinvention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more like cleaning,\u201d Friday said, noting that the government had said the programme ranges from the cultural to the infrastructural and is spread across various ministries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, Mr. Speaker, it\u2019s an attempt to give a new gloss to things that are pretty much normal and many of them come in for a lot of criticism under our side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course, Renewal @ 40\u201d is a referral to our independence and everybody wants to be patriotic and celebrate independence and so to embrace anything that suggests that we are doing something to celebrate our independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat, I suppose, was part of the plan,\u201d Friday said, adding that they are all \u201cgrand-sounding things in a billion-dollar budget.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He told legislators that the government had received its headline, when one newspaper carried last weekend the headline \u201cbillion dollar budget\u201d following the passage of the Estimates last Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026 but when all is said and done, we have, with all the projects, all the initiatives and the grand-sounding words and hype, we had for 2018 an estimated growth rate of 2.5 per cent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Opposition Leader said that the Estimates, show the International Monetary Fund (IMF), projecting 2.3 per cent growth for 2019 while the World Bank says that the growth rate would be a more modest 1.6 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday said that the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), which he noted focuses primarily on Caribbean and Latin American countries, and perhaps have a more specific knowledge than other institutions, have a preliminary projection of 1.5 per cent growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo we have, Mr. Speaker, a budget, and the Minister said the budget is about creating jobs and generating economic activity and a good standard of living \u2014 I don\u2019t know if he used those exact word, but it is pretty much the point he was making \u2014 for the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. But, if those estimates turn out to be accurate or anywhere near that, it will be nothing new or different in this budget.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday said that the country would see the same \u201caverage growth rate of two per cent that this government has had since coming to office\u201d in 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that after its 2017 Article IV consultation with Kingstown, the IMF said the local economy grew by 0.2 per cent from 2009 to 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe point is, Mr. Speaker, this budget, for all its gloss and for all the attempt by the new minister to differentiate himself from the previous minister of finance, the substance remains the same.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Finance Minister took over the portfolio from his father, Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, who held it from March 2001, when his government came to office, to November 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is something of the heft that is lacking in it.  It lacks substance, what it needs to generate growth,\u201d Friday said of the budget and referred to the Book of Corinthians in the bible, which likens talent without love as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo love in the budget, Mr. Speaker. No love at all, because the people, the young people whom the minister proclaim to love so much, they are still confronted with a same old, same old budget; same old, same old projections of growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd, Mr. Speaker, we have seen where this has led to a situation where over 46 per cent of young people,\u201d Friday said, quoting a government statistic that the administration later said was incorrect as it including students, who should not have been factored in as part of the labour force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou would think that this would generate some urgency in the government to try something different,\u201d Friday said of the budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd you would see, Mr. Speaker, from my presentation today \u2026  that even with the things that we have in place, that we have been executing over the years, that sense of urgency is lacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe sense that we have to do something different to jump-start this economy, to give hope to young people, to give some solace to those people who cry daily about how difficult life is in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. And I don\u2019t think any member of this Honourable House escapes this, Mr. Speaker, because, very often, we are the first port of call for those persons who are having difficulty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He told Parliament that if opposition lawmakers confine their debate entirely to what\u2019s in the budget, the people here \u201cwould not get a sense of what is possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u201cBecause we would be treading down the same path, behind the minister of finance, questioning figures, whether this one is bigger or smaller, and what to call this programme this year, as opposed to last year, and whether we are on the cusp of an economic take off, and arguing about thing like that, when, in fact, Mr. Speaker, there is a path, or there are paths, that are less travelled or not travelled at all by this government, that we have to explore in order to show the people of this country that we can do better,\u201d Friday said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The debate is continuing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 Opposition Leader Dr. Godwin Friday on Tuesday invoked the Bible and described as \u201csounding brass and tinkling cymbals\u201d the EC$1.067 billion (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents)  budget presented to Parliament by Finance Minister Camillo Gonsalves. \u201cYou would have thought, Mr. Speaker, that we had won the lottery here in St. Vincent.  All these new terms and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional"],"yoast_head":"\nST. 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