Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Addresses Concerns Over Proposed 2% Sales Tax Increase Amid Opposition from United Progressive Party

1. An economic dunce at work. How do you reduce cost of living by a tax hike? This clown has done nothing to make any dent into cost of living, even though lucrative suggestions have been made to show him how. Notice how he deflects the blame to the ministry of finance. Isn’t he the minister of finance? Does he not have the final say?
   Since when this man is concerned about civil servants pay increase?
   I am not sure what the intention was here in this article, but Gaston Browne would have been better served to allow someone with the capacity and qualifications to attempt to justify the tax hike.
   Besides, he continues to give all kinds of concessions and tax breaks to the rich and now wants to pass the burden on to the poor. How far has he gone to be in favor with the five percenters must be uncovered by ridding the country of this scourge.

2. What the Local Media and Regional Media have not brought to the publics attention.
   There is no way that Gaston Browne was not aware of the 2% ABST tax increase.
   Sales tax is a regressive tax on the poor and lower class. Meaning, while taxes are applied across the population it hits the poor and low income sector of the population hardest.
   There are numerous other ways to increase Government revenues through taxes, which does not weight heavily on the poor and low income sector. But they seemingly did not teach the element how to do so, in the economic and finance classes at UWI.
   Another failure among Caribbean Institutions
   Now that there is a public outcry the Minister of Finance who micromanages every aspect of our lives is pretending he had no knowledge or had anything to do with it.
   At first it would be brought to Cabinet. That was the first indication that Gaston wanted is cake and eat it too. The public outcry; and not the Media doing its job, has let to a backtracking with an equally egregious solution.
   Gaston and his Government proposes to raise consumption taxes and bring down inflation. Gaston.. Gaston ..Gaston ! Consumption taxes are inflationary, Mr. Minister of Finance.
   ABST hits poor people hardest. Inflation hits poor people hardest. Its soak the poor, and give it to the rich economic policies.

3. Gaston, you too lie fu be one f*****g big man, referring to your age, because mentally you are still a child.

4. Does he think we are idiots? This is like cutting off your feet and calling it weight loss. Inflation is not something you can just turn off and on. It is dependent on economic conditions. The same economic conditions he aims to fix by increasing tax (an economic burden in itself).

5. After we were told by the PM ” no other administration collected more taxes than his” this is the answer now ,more taxes on the poor ? Your administration keep employing non productive party supporters for votes,and that’s why the treasury can’t keep up with payments. Plus over the pass 9 years ,your administration borrowed monies at very high interest rates. Antiguans need to take their heads from under the sand .

6. CITIZENS MUST ADDRESS THE UNDERLYING ISSUES OF GOVERNMENT RECKLESS SPENDING OR WE WILL FOREVER BE CALLED UPON TO PAY MORE TAXES WHEN THEY SAY

   Just mere weeks after the Prime Minister announced in his Independence day message that Antigua and Barbuda was expected to see a phenomenal growth rate of over 8 percent this year, which according to him made Antigua and Barbuda the country with the second fastest growth rate in the region, the Prime Minister has given a clear indication of his government’s intention to raise the Antigua & Barbuda Sales Tax by a possible 2 percent soon.

   If Antigua & Barbuda is doing so well, then the people should expect at a minimum NO NEW TAXES or even more, a decrease in some of the taxes that we are already on the books..

   The age of spending anyhow now without accountability is ruining our country and the prospects for our children’s future. We cannot allow partisan politics to make us overlook the long term effects of blind policies and programs that are likely to have a severe negative impact on the citizens’ purse in the long run . If we do not take stock of how we do things now, it will inevitably create a future of economic hardships for us and generations to come later. We simply cannot close our eyes to the reality of the situation that is before us today.

   Taxpayers have repeatedly watched the government respond to some problems with the creation of new ones, with dire spending initiatives that was never budgeted for. Some cases in point are the Alfa Nero Vessel and the enormous amount of money that we are spending to maintain and sustain it, the huge sums of money that was spent on the St. Mary’s South by-election, and so much more. All this money came out of the treasury – it is our money that we paid in taxes.

   The Government must find ways and means of reorganizing and repurposing the money that it already has within the Government bureaucracy and not try to impose additional burden on the people by way of additional taxes.

   There are also many programs within the government that have outlived their mission and usefulness and are operating way below peak efficiency. All such wasteful spending has been a contributing factor to the government deteriorating fiscal health today. Our citizens are already overtaxed ad overburdened.

   Quite honestly, the people deserve better from their government in terms of how our tax dollars are spent. Every dollar spent by the government must be measured by its effect on actual outcomes. Value for money is the only way. Look out for the One Nation Concert not too far off where we will likely take millions of dollars of tax payers money from the treasury to pay artists. Frankly speaking, not even Qatar, Saudi Arabia or even Guyana with plenty oil dollars, waste monies like we do in Antigua.

   Our system of government lacks serious oversight..and there are little or no checks and balances once the government budget is passed annually. This situation only deepens the mistrust in government and how they spend our hard earned tax dollars.

   There must be justification for wanting to increase taxes when the country is doing so good and to date the government has provided none. Each and every citizen must rise up and object to any increase in ABST as this will only increase the already high cost of living for everyone.

7. @Audley Phillip
   What you have written should have been covered by local and regional news and editorials. Your key points should have bee making headlines every day that are editorially reviewed. The uderlying issue stems from the time the colonials walked out of the Treasury; it has been the ruling Party piggy bank.
   The UK had its system of oversights and once they left; the oversights has been eroded and never updated.
   The individuals who are given the name veteran broadcasters are just talking heads. The journalist reorganize the PR given to them by government agents. I challenge any one to point to me an investigative reporter since Tim Hector. Better yet, I ask anyone to point out a deeply sourced journalist across the entire Caribbean. Don’t even try for No such individual exists.

   • The truth is, our media are soft and very afraid to ask politicians hard questions. As a result, the political directorate usually gets away with almost everything they do. Politicians have driven fear in the minds of the media so they are fearful of being singled out and called out when they ask hard questions. Though social media has allowed more open expression, people are still afraid to identity with questions which challenge the status quo so they often hide behind pseudo names. We have to move beyond this and see our role as helping to keep our democracy and our institutions in check when we ask hard but relevant questions. I use my name because I want it to be known that it is me when I write and ask any question.

8. I’m really really tired of talking about this inept administration, so from now on I’ll just laugh at these ridiculous articles, because that’s what they really are, big big jokes.

   I’m seriously tired. This Government wore me out.

   Sheesh 🙄.

9. IF THE SALES TAX IS 15%.RAISING IT BY 2% WOULD NOW BE 17%.THAT WOULD BE VERY HIGH TO SAY THE LEAST.GASTON,JUST CUT ALL FOOD ITEMS TO ZERO SALES TAXES.MANY YEARS AGO,I QUESTIONED YOU ON OBSERVER RADIO.WHEN YOU WERE TOUTING THAT NO PERSONAL INCOME TAX.I DID ASK YOU,HOW DO YOU INTEND TO REPLACE THAT $41 MILLION RECEIVED ANNUALLY FROM PERSONAL INCOME TAX.IT IS OBVIOUS YOU HAD NO PLANS.I DID SAY TO YOU A BIRD IN THE HAND IS WORTH MORE THAN A MILLION IN THE BUSHES.HOW WOULD THAT $41 MILLION PLUS,HELP YOU NOW?

10. A knowledgeable community with informed opinions comes about through a robust media.
    How would the public know that this is a regressive tax policy designed to soak the poor to enhance the pockets of the well to do in our community.
    The media’s failure we can see in this very article.
    This is not just a proposed sales tax increase. It is how it impacts the public. Where the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer.

    The politicians issue a self serving statement and the public ominously reacts.

    It was not the media who questioned
    the decision to increase ABST but anonymous individuals.

    If there was a media who writes in-depth articles about the economy; there would be a body of information from both deeply sourced and verified articles about the economy.

    The Politicians and their spokesperson would not issue self serving statements or outright lies.

    Armed with information about the economy enables everyone to question the veracity of the statements issued by politicians.

    Part of the problem is that we look to the politicians to provide information. The politicians tell us what enables them to keep the public misinformed.

    This is not just an Antigua and Barbuda problem; it’s a Caribbean problem.

11. Having a robust independent media presence is the essential step on a path to more stable, well-informed, and effective governance.

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