CABINET NOTES: The Ministry of Finance Officials presented the debt obligations owed by the Government to former employees in the form of gratuities, to contractors, landlords, statutory corporations, China ExIm Bank, the Regional Government Security Market (RGSM), the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB).
The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) discussed the issue of property taxes owed to the Government of Antigua and Barbuda by property owners.
The subsidy paid by the Government for petroleum products was also discussed, and a plan to discontinue that subsidy was also examined.
Tax on fuel, it was agreed falls below the regional average and it is one contributing factor that can be easily remedied, it was agreed.
The Governments’ purchase of gasoline for its fleet of vehicles was also examined and ways to reduce that expense were also discussed.
The object of these discussions is to assist the Finance Minister to prepare his Budget Statement and budgetary figures that will be shared with the public on Friday December 15th at 9:30 am in the Parliament.
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Hard decisions are better made early in the term. PIT was therefore introduced just after the first year that the UPP came to office, by the next election it was like a normal tax. The same with ABST. Many do not even remember the increase of cooking gas from $20.00 to $32.00. The Gaston Browne government is now at this junction to introduce the unpopular decisions, which the UPP will run and campaign on and cause public outcry. But I can tell you these measure have been promoted by IMF for years and Mia Mottley of Barbados has implemented them all with much ado. The one low hanging fruit is the discontinued subsidizing of the fuel prize. Antiguans have no clue how they are being protected from the prize hikes daily. The same goes for the water production. We are not paying the price of the water production. yet we are complaining for not getting water consistently. When you protect people for so long, the day that you take away that protection they will not know how to survive. I once stayed by a family in New York for Christmas. And it was a very cold Christmas. Every day I was complaining that the house was cold, if they did not have a heater or so. After a while my cousin told me, you don’t know how expensive that is here. You have to make out by clothing yourself warm in the house. Always have on two sweaters and socks. In bed we had electric blankets. So that was better. But it made me realize that people were very much aware of the cost of heating up their homes. Antiguans are protected in many ways. As I said we don’t know how much the fuel prices raises on the market daily, we do not know what the real cost of water nor electricity is, we are spoiled and don’t even know it. And truly we don’t care. But reality will kick in one day. Sooner or later.
Reminds me when my first son when to life in Europe by himself. He could not believe the amount of bills he had to pay. Rent took almost half of his salary and then the utilities and other expenses took the rest. And when he wants to come home for Carnival it is me he had to ask to sponsor him a ticket. Children when they are at home have no clue about what it takes to make a living. But when they go out of the house on their own it hits them hard. They learn how to be economical with money. Antiguans will have to let go one day. The government should have social programs for those that cannot afford it but you cannot protect the entire nation from the facts of live. And that is why we say we are living in PARADISE.
@From the sideline, did you really take up so much space to write all that Bull Crap?
Do you really want to compare rates that people pay for Utilities in the USA to Antigua? Many homes in the USA uses electri dryers, electric stoves, central heating and cooling, etc and would pay less than a house in Anyigua without all the above mentioned.
You sound surprised that people complain because of the water issue, my God, who would not?
@Not politically affiliated November 23, 2023 At 7:46 pm
it is so sad when one’s comprehension is so limited. That you write plain english for them to understand and yet in the end they don’t get nothing at all.
Just so you understand, I was given an example that when people are faced with the real cost of things they feel it in their pocket and go about it with more value. Like some jewish man told me it is not beneficial to give people free things. They won’t appreciate the value. If you give someone a million dollar diamond ring for free, they will not understand the value of it, then when they had to pay for it themselves. That is why it is not good to give children expensive gifts. I once gave my son an expensive toy race car. And then a older kid came along and saw that young boy playing with that expensive car. he ask him to trade it in for a plastic boat. Loved the plastic boat and came very happy at home showing me how he traded the car for this nice plastic boat. Show you he had no idea of value. Same with people that get free things. They don’t know and don’t appreciate the value. If we start paying the real cost of water we would never waste it. if we start paying the real cost of fuel we would not take the car and drive every minute somewhere. We would walk or ride bikes. Hope you get it this time around. A brain is a terrible thing to waste.
Politicians should pay their own fair share of taxes. All of them abuse the privilege while we citizens pay dearly for their free rides on just about everything.
Most of us can’t provide for our families yet politicians are living a real good life and in excess.
Is that what you voted for? It is not about red or blue, it’s what every party and party member does for us citizens.
United we stand, divided we fall. Political parties are good at dividing us and here we are in this predicament. Fix this by making your vote count. It’s not what they can bribe us with, it’s how they can better our constituencies and in the long run our country.
Don’t let any party take our country down any further.
“Most of us can’t provide for our families yet politicians are living a real good life and in excess.”
When people make statements such as this you wonder who are the ‘Most of us”. And how come they arrive at those analysis. Did they held a survey. I measure things of the economy by looking if many young construction workers are out on the street looking for a job. And for years now Antigua is short of construction workers. Then I look at availability of gardeners. Well is you want someone to cut your grass, you better make an appointment a month in advance, cause those guys are loaded with work. Then you look at the loitering on the street by young boys. And that also is very scares. So those things tell me that Antigua doesn’t have an un-employment problem. Then I look at people begging for money on the street. My mind goes back to the hard days of 2009 through 2014. Begging at every supermarket was at the order of the day. Many people has lost their job and even people that needed medical attention overseas, were not given that help and had to go to the public to see if they could be assisted. Cause the government of the day, said they don’t have the finances. Then you look at Carnival. The pre-carnival fetes are very expensive. Yet we witness that all and I mean ALL the Carnival Fetes were sold out. The youth had money to spend. These are not just the rich folks children. The fetes are attended by thousands. And everyone had a good time. So much so that it was the best Carnival ever.
So when people say the majority or most of us are poort and cannot take care of our families, I just wonder who they are talking about.
I’m glad you mentioned carnival because people these days have money for everything except to help support their family. They’re able to buy and maintain a car, go to every fete, and buy excess amount of weed and alcohol with no sense of priorities and budgeting.
That is the freedom we all have in determining how we spend our monies. Some one clothes, some on cars, some on food. And some save for rainy days. I hope you are a wise one and know how to spend your money.
It is a waste of time trying to reason with @Sideline. Obviously this individual so wants to sound relevant, he comes to defense of the Gaston Browne led failure ALP government. Is this another $9,000 dollar job? If this crackhead government feeds $hi## they will call it gourmet.
Nine years and 13 billion dollars later, they still blaming UPP. We should just not waste time responding to the garbage.
That is very good advise to yourself. Because your responses are very lame to say the least.
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