CABINET NOTES:
The Cabinet held a discussion on lowering the cost of living, to the extent possible.
Bearing in mind that the cost of shipping goods has increased significantly all along the supply chain, triggered by increased fuel prices, food prices especially have escalated in Antigua and Barbuda.
The Russian/Ukranian War and the embargo placed upon Russian fuel, usually sold to Europe and elsewhere, have resulted in global shortages that have driven prices upwards.
The Cabinet took the decision to encourage backyard gardening and to encourage the use of scientific means to increase the customary yield of farmers by 25%.
The members were acting on advice given by experts that have noted imported produce exceed significantly farm-grown domestic produce.
The Cabinet also considered granting additional support to chicken farmers, taking into account the increased cost of baby chicks imported from several places.
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This govt is full of it. All these decades the practice of charging us duty based on the value of the goods, plus the cost to ship here plus the cost of any insurance are all added in the duties customs charges us. That is HIGHLY ILLEGAL yet the govt continues to rob us blind. It is time we the people put our feet down and stop this practice.
Then to add insult to injury, they charge to write up a warrant, they charge brokers fees and maybe some other fee. That’s why it’s so expensive to bring our items here. Highway robbery is an understatement. This must come to an end.
Remember the govt works for us not the other way around. Time to get someone who will fight to stop this practice. We all need to come together to stop it. If we need to sign a petition like change.org, it needs to be done.
I don’t know of any other country that does this and if they do, it needs to be stopped there too. Time for us to stop the govt from fleecing us.
Let’s see what this govt does to truly lower the cost of living. If they don’t, it will be on us to make the govt do just that. Every vote counts. They work for us.
Now? They gave no stimulus despite borrowing 540 million secretly in 2021; when oil prices went below zero, they kept the prices at the pump high,there was no reduction in APUA electricity bills. We have been crying out for the rise in cost of living and they sat on their ass and did nothing.
So now we are to believe they really care about us? I don’t trust anything these clowns say.
The sad reality is that we import almost everything in Antigua and the little that we grow is almost insignificant because of the very short growing season. We must improve and expand our local production and I see little or nothing done to clean and expand our water catchment so that we can see further growth in our agricultural base. As a country we should have already been independent in the production of eggs and poultry, goat meat and beef and some other things. Realistically, our food bill would always be high if we have to import everything as we are currently doing. And in as much as the government tries, it is via import taxes and duties that they make most revenue and this revenue is required to continue providing educational, health, public works and utilities etc. We have to get serious about Agriculture. The Ministry of Agriculture needs to be a stand alone Ministry. The current structure shows how little regard we pay to expanding Agriculture and food production.
The government needs to clamp down on the supermarkets price gouging, one especially comes to mind. They need to empower price control to go into these establishments and really look at how they are pricing these goods.
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