Tax increase approved by Cabinet

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The Cabinet has agreed to increase the Antigua and Barbuda Sales Tax by 2% after several hours of discussion today.

The measure will result in residents paying an ABST of 17%, which is 2% higher than the current 15%.

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33 COMMENTS

  1. ON THE BACKS OF POOR PEOPLE.

    GASTON AND THE ABLP WICKED NOW HELL.

    IT IS YEARS OF CORRUPTION AND MIS-MANAGEMENT THAT RESULTED IN THE INCREASE OF TAXES.

    THEY TAKE ADVANTAGE OF US WITH NO CONSEQUENCES- EVIL AND HARSH. RISE UP, STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHT.

  2. The whole cabinet want dash way all uno can afford to buy steak 🥩 while poor people can’t even buy bread 🍞

  3. Everywhere else : tax returns, increase in minimum wage, regulation following inflation, food stamps

    Antigua: increases taxes gives the very bare minimum near election

    ….Waits patiently for our crime rate to triple

    One day Antiguans will wake up to the bullshit and realize that the UPP and ALP extended family is not what this country needs

    Taxes are implemented for a country to function thats simple but can I please see where the amount you’re getting is going before you take more?

  5. Well I guess someone has to pay for the “free” concert.

    I how I see where the money goes, and persons will see an improvement in services, the building and maintenance of infrastructure, and salaries and pensions being paid on time and in full.

  6. Government needs the extra money for the one nation concert and to maintain the alpha nar go none way , Antigua is in a serious situation.

  8. Meanwhile the government continues to spend money on the Alfa Nargo. What a reckless, heartless set a people!

  9. Gaston need to go dem too wicked ..money nah go no higher but u have to survive off what I hardly getting..Gaston need to go

    • It’s a low down dutty shame. Politians getting free water, free lights, free phone, free internet free vehicles, free gas Free everything. All of them living off of poor people blood, sweat and tears. Evil that you all do must come back to you all. You all don’t give damn about the citizens of this country. Pretending to give a raise while taking it back in taxes. What’s the point???

  10. Thanks for increasing the cost of living for all Antiguans when it is already higher than it has ever been. Just raise it up even higher for all citizens. Bunch of A-holes. How are poor people to survive with these HIGH prices and then ABLP adding on higher taxes on top to kill us all?

  11. ABLP think that they are gaining votes by giving a 14% salary increase to civil servants funded by the 2% ABST increase but the truth is that this will raise the prices for all locals who will feel it deeply in their pockets and will remember ABLP at election time for raising the prices on us all when we already cannot afford the prices.

    • @ A+black+woman, I cannot disagree with what you have said, when back in January Antiguans had a great opportunity to get rid of this duplicitous ABLP government – though close!

      However, we are now reaping what we have sown sadly.

      AND IT IS ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE, AND YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A VISIONARY TO SEE THAT …

      • Brix The UPP has openly said that If they are elected we will go straight into and IMF program. What do you think going into an IMF program means. If you do not know, ask Barbadians. They are now crying murder with the new taxes once again imposed by the Mia Mottley’s government. No subsidies whatsoever. All cost need to be past through to the consumers. They wanted to have their water subsidize and Mia told them in a townhouse meeting unequevically NO the government cannot do that. They have no fiscal space. Why you think they had to stop investing in LIAT? Just educate yourself about the cost of living presently in Barbados. My friend his grand children are studying their now and they said when they come home for Chistmas, they will buy all their toiletteries here. I just had an old firend visiting from Barbados and he was a former party man of Prime Miniser Owen Arthur. But he cannot believe whay Mia Mottley has been doing to the country. Strictly following an IMF program.
        We have been their under the UPP and thank God the ABLP came to power and run them out of the country. But me being a technician and not a politician, do agree with some of their measures. Antigua has too many freebeez. We have become spoiled. And think it is normal for government to carry us all the time.
        The minute Mia came to office she laid off 1800 civil servants. Paid them off with IMF money. Harold was going to do the same thing with the NEST program. PSTP Public Sector Transformation Program. The lady Gayle Archibald from St. Lucia was in charge of that.
        https://www.linkedin.com/in/gale-archibald-28290b29/?originalSubdomain=lc
        So nothing new here. The Government is just coming to turn with certain things that they must do one day. And one of will be to cut the Public Sector wage bill. That will always be like a big concrete block around their neck. No matter what economic phylosphy you have. One day you will have to face that. And the next thing is the none-contributed pension that public servants are given while at the same time they also get a Social Security pension inwhich they pay in 1% less than Private Sector workers. These in-equalities must stop one day.

  13. You know it’s so funny reading some of these comments. On one hand when the government having issues meeting some of its obligations. There is this push back, “not paying on time, civilian need a wage increase, more roads/ infrastructure need more attention, we need running water in our pipe to be more consistent and list goes on and on. We need to understand running a country like ours takes alot of maneuvering and skills because we just don’t have the type of resources to get things resolve the way we would like. It don’t matter the government in power at one point some measure of increase in tax imay be necessary

    • @Independent Thinker
      I tell you what the government should do. Reintroduce PIT and collect the taxes people not remitting to the government. No point in increasing ABST when the government not collecting the money. Gaston doesn’t want income tax because he and his high income earners will have to pay. So therefore increase the poor man’s tax burden by 2%.

      • Saying November 23, 2023 At 3:16 pm
        Many countries with income tax, take for example the USA it is the poor that pay the large amiunt of these taxes. The rich always have their accountants find ways not to pay a dime. just follow the tax cases from Donald Trump. And have you seem how Elon Musk has avoided ever paying taxes. Even the richest man Warren Buffett said that he pays less taxes per ratio than his secretary. Many of them get money back from the IRS.
        Therefore it is not so simple to say that PIT would make those higher earners pay. The burden would be on the IRS to collect. And I do not believe the government can spend hundreds of thousands to catch a $1.00. ABST is the simplest way to collect your taxes. It is tied to spending. And we need people to spend their money. I must say more and more people spend directly in the USA though AMAZON and Ebay and pay their ABST at the Port. That to the detriment of our local vendors. But that is live. Every men for themselves.

        • The poor people in the US pay taxes as a result of most
          receiving salaries and have limited claimable expenses. The income of the Warren Buffet, Donald Trump and the likes are mostly made in their corporations and the government allows the corporations certain write offs as they the corporations provide employment and stimulate the economy. Any dividends or salary received by the shareholders from their corporations are taxable.
          Do individuals pay taxes on moneys they receive from their corporations in Antigua? All these companies have to do is pay out all their profits to their shareholders as there are no personal income taxes in Antigua.
          Most Antiguans are employees and have no deductible expenses.
          It is unfair that people in Antigua making thousands of dollars per month are not paying income taxes.
          The UPP government collected millions in income taxes and the people making less than $3000 per month did not have to pay. And even people making $4,000, $5,000 paid a couple hundreds.
          Antigua is in such an economic mess that a 2% increase in ABST will not bail the country out. The increase in the sales tax won’t compensate for the mismanagement of the economy, and the looting of the country’s resources, resulting in the constant increase in the debt burden.
          Here you have a bunch of politicians who don’t pay for anything agreeing on a tax increase for poor people. Did any of them object? What Gaston wants, Gaston gets and now he wants to blame the Finance Department.

    • You are so right. it doesn’t matter who is in power. they will have to take the bitter pill one day. Kicking the can down the road is just temporarry fix. A postponment of execution.

    • Least we NOT forget who had 40-odd years of governance, and SHOULD have made taxes and the cost of living so much better today @ bertaboi.

      Bwoi, you ABLP acolytes and Gastonites selective eeh …

  15. Thos is so wrong in so many ways, there are so many people struggling to put food on their table and rhis increase, will make it a lot morw difficult for them. Really bad for thw poor in Antigua and Barbuda!

  16. @Elephant. You are not representing Elephant memory very well. The 5 percent was given in 2018 but as with all ABLP spin, they add that to the 9 now considered to say they giving 14.
    Always take anything ABLP says with a “pound” of salt.

  17. There’s not a single decent person in that cabinet. Not half a brain cell among them, and no brain at the top. Otherwise they would realize that a 2% tax increase would be detrimental. But the jackass and his pussy-ass lemmings have filled their pockets will ill-gotten gains, and they’ve exhausted the places where they can beg for moreemoney…so what happens now??. You get jump up in a free concert, and forget yuh hungry…then what??. Yuh go home and SUCK SALT!…while the jackass eating two chickens fuh dinner every night. Yuh see how his clothes tight over he belly?…he isn’t starving. You will though!! Every price and service in dis country is going to raise prices!
    Y’all voted for dat jackass! How is that looking now? Still calling him ‘world boss’ and kissing his ass! Next, we’ll see them decide to give themselves a raise! More for them…nothing for you!
    God help this country!

  18. LOOKING AT THIS CAPTION PICTURE I HAVE TO LAUGH…EVERYONE BOWING THEIR HEADS, SAYING AMEN. JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL!!! THESE SO CAL”HONOURERY”MEN
    ARE MAKING A MOCKERY OF PRAYER

  19. Gaston you are heartless and wicked 😒 this is a sure way for you to lose the next election. You and your cronies living good getting all the freebies while people suffering out here and you increase the tax while we don’t see where the money goes. Cost of living gone up, but not our pay, the roads are the worst, we can’t get water to wash our asses, the city of St. John’s looks worse than the dirtiest parts of New York

  20. You are right who-can-stop-me-Gaston-Browne. You are the top dawg, the world boss. Continue to cause the nation to suffer cause you don’t know what it’s like to be hungry. Remember you were born with a gold spoon in your mouth.
    Do you pray at nights and ask the Lord if your ways are pleasing unto Him? Enquiring minds would like to know.

  21. Antigua people just chat too much and do nothing. Government just do as they please and alyuh just cry and go along like a spineless wimp

    • Hallelujah, tell me which country you reside in, and I’ll highlight similar issues with your government, and I will do likewise and send you crying also like a spineless wimp.

      COME ON, WHERE YOU LIVE @ Hallelujah?

      Let’s see if you are a person of ACTION, or a do NOTHING chatterbox?

      Brixtonian awaits …

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