Barbadians now know

OUR DYNAMIC, BRIGHT and caring leader – Mia Amor Mottley, QC – must be congratulated for exposing the Democratic Labour Party’s (DLP) price gouging on land tax and on petroleum prices.

Barbadians now know that Prime Minister Thompson’s petroleum price increase; his inflationary budget; his poor judgment and bad decisions – compounded by his failure to introduce a sensible stimulus package to promote economic growth – triggered his meltdown of the Barbados economy and are the real reasons our economy is in crisis.

Instead of putting people first, Mr Thompson and his Government are fixated with travelling, balancing the budget, and impressing the International Monetary Fund.

Vigilance from our astute and charismatic leader and our competent and experienced team, pressured and shamed the Prime Minister, but he only took off a puny five cents, having raised prices by $2. Five cents makes no difference to persons now paying $400 for road tax or those paying an additional $650 for a licence to operate a small shop!

Do you realise that oil is now US$36 per barrel, lower than when we left office, yet you are paying more at the pump than you were under a Barbados Labour Party (BLP) Government? Do the Dems really expect us to thank them for a five cent reduction when they have local petroleum prices higher than on the international market? For every dollar this Government purports to be giving you, it is taking $4 from your pocket.

Today we will highlight more of the DLP’s “high priced energy errors”. We developed and laid the Barbados National Energy Policy in Parliament. It is the most progressive in the entire Caribbean and provides for the same National Energy Conservation Campaign, which the so-called DLP of “integrity” now gives the impression is their idea.

The progressive plan which we left also contains a Public Sector Conservation Programme; a plan to transition the economy to 30 per cent renewable energy by 2020; as well as a plan for greater use of natural gas, which would have allowed citizens and companies to generate electricity from renewable resources. Negotiations had already started with the Barbados Light & amp; Power and that initiative is explained in our manifesto.

We introduced natural gas vehicles into Barbados and developed a pilot project to save the Transport Board money by putting alternatively fuelled and hybrid buses on some routes. The DLP refused to provide money for it in the budget. Our last minister negotiated Barbados’ participation in a United Nations US$12 million project, with the specific intention that it would provide serious benefits to our solar water heater manufacturers.

Since we left office, no one has carried the initiative forward – another serious error on their part. The DLP is therefore responsible for the “sudden death of the offshore oil programme”. Under a BLP Government about 13 of the world’s largest and most reputable oil companies were anxious to participate in the Barbados Offshore Oil Programme. About eight of them spent close to BDS$20 million on data and technical work in preparation for their involvement.

Only three companies have now put in bids. The DLP squandered the work we did in the national interest. International oil companies have simply lost confidence in the process and in the Government.

When in Opposition, the DLP said the offshore oil programme was rubbish. When they became the Government, the ruling party failed to amend the petroleum legislation by the middle of June as they promised. They also put off the bid submission date more than once, moving it from April to November.

Their biggest mistake was failure to tell the companies what percentage share of each bid block the Government was taking. This prevented the companies from being able to do their financial projections.

Imagine that type of bad behaviour from a Government that now talks about “freedom of information”! The DLP promised the companies this information by the end of June but never sent it – although the BLP Cabinet left the work completed for this critical information to be given to the companies.

The DLP must explain its “inexcusable and dangerous mismanagement”, which has caused this country to lose out on millions of dollars in revenue.

BLP TV Streaming Conference Live

BARBADIANS with access to the Internet will be able to get a front row seat at Sunday morning’s happenings at the Barbados Labour Party’s (BLP) annual conference.

 

 

They will just have to log on to BLP TV, a streaming video web programme first introduced to the public during the campaign leading up to the January 15 general election.

The website is www.blp.org.bb, and the streaming starts from 9:15 a.m.

Sunday will be the second day of the annual conference, with party leader Mia Mottley expected to deliver the main address around 11:15 a.m. A number of awards will also be presented to the party faithful that morning.

The conference, which starts tomorrow, will be held at Queen’s College in the school hall.

Price Gouging on Energy

ENERGY IS THE SOURCE of life and livelihoods – without it people would die, businesses would collapse and life as we know it would come to a halt. A progressive and sensitive policy, which allows access to affordable energy, is critical to the well-being of the country and its citizens.

Poor energy policy causes suffering to people at every level of society. The Barbados Labour Party (BLP) got its energy policy right. That was part of the reason Barbados prospered under the BLP Government. On the other hand, the Democratic Labour Party’s (DLP) energy policy reflects the Dems’ lack of understanding of how the economy works and the connection between energy policy, quality of life and the performance of the Barbados economy.

It is no accident that since the Prime Minister raised energy prices, the price of everything in Barbados – from food to fuel, from bottled gas to bread – has gone sky-high.

Whether you are cooking, freighting, using water

or producing goods and services, you need energy. We understand this, and under the BLP energy prices were kept down so as to also control and reduce prices

in the wider economy. When prices went down internationally, the BLP passed the benefit of that decrease on to the public.

Unlike the BLP, the Dems are not passing on price decreases to you. The Prime Minister raised the price of petroleum products when the international market price was about US$130 per barrel. A barrel of oil is now about US$90 and although Bajans are suffering, the Prime Minister would not reduce the local price and ease our pain. It is shameful that with its high prices, the DLP is raking in more taxes on petroleum products than any Government in the history of the country.

We were told that the BLP left a debt of $80 million at Barbados National Oil Company (BNOC). What people were not told is that so much fuel is sold in Barbados that just by adding a few cents to the price, a debt of $80 million could be wiped-off in a few months. What the DLP, which promised “freedom of information”, hid from you is that although they imposed a near $2 price increase on diesel, petrol and kerosene, and $52 between large and small bottles of gas, out of those massive increases only four cents goes to repay the BNOC debt. So why such a steep increase?

Let us explain how the taxes work! There are two taxes on fuel – VAT and excise tax. If a gallon of gas costs $1, the VAT on that is 15 cents. If ten gallons are sold, then the Government makes $1.50 in VAT. When the price is increased to $2, the VAT automatically moves to 30 cents and if the same ten gallons of gas are sold, the Government gets $3 in VAT.

Every time gas prices go up people have to pay more taxes and more for everything else; the lower the price at the pump, then the lower the cost of living.

A desire to control the cost of living is the reason why when prices went up internationally, the BLP reduced the excise tax in order to keep prices

down at the pump. The example used earlier shows how much more money the present Government is “raking-in” in tax, when there is a difference in price

of just one dollar.

So, can you imagine how much taxes this DLP is “raking-in” on fuel by selling it to us at US$112, when the market price is US$90? Have they forgotten their promise to keep down the cost of living, or was that just a campaign gimmick?

Instead of giving us “relief from the pain” from their high energy prices and taxes, the DLP has made itself the biggest price gouger in the country.

Ease the Pain

ON JULY 7, 2008, Prime Minister of Barbados David Thompson presented the first Budget of his administration to the House of Assembly and people of Barbados.

 

 

At that time, he said he was “acutely aware” of the responsibility that had been placed on his shoulders.

He acknowledged he had identified a Barbados that “stands tall in the international arena as one of the highest ranking developing countries of the world” and he pledged to take our country to an even higher level of development – a level at which, according toMr Thopmson, every Barbadian would have access to a decent standard of living and an improved quality of life.

That high-flown rhetoric was aptly depicted by Opposition Leader Mia Mottley as characteristic of Mr Thompson’s empty posturing. She tested the substance behind his words by exposing the fact that his Budget did not in fact promise to increase development, but rather threatened to tax our society in general, and our middle class in particular, into suffocation.

She also brought into focus the fact that for the first time in our nation’s history, the PM sought to raise over $100 million in one swoop. Worse yet, she warned, the Budget was exceptionally inflationary and sought to raise taxes on entities that were almost sure to pass the costs on to the consuming public. The insurance companies, mobile service providers, banks, professional service providers and commercial transport companies were all targeted.

This week we learnt that Mr Thompson is nothing if not stubbornly indifferent to the public’s pain. Not satisfied by his July harvest, the great tax gatherer has now focused his fiscal lust on property holders.

Whilst in office, the Barbados Labour Party systematically sought to reduce property taxes in Barbados. We tax-exempted owners who occupied properties valued at less than $125 000 and took 19 000 Barbadians off of land tax. Across the board, our policy was that the land tax charge should be revenue neutral. The Barbadian property owner was the beneficiary of that policy.

You would not have known that a call for change would mean that your fellow Barbadians owning a property valued at $300 000 or more, would now have to face a 50 per cent increase in property valuations and a land tax bill which is twice as high as it used to be.

You could not have known that a pledge to make jobs No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 the cost of living, would have meant that you would be faced with a 100 per cent increase in the valuations of your residential property – and a consequentially harsh and unreasonable tax burden.

You could not have known that the promised pathway to progress would be turned into a national pilgrimage towards impoverishment by a government that has cynically abandoned a policy of ensuring that takings from land taxes are revenue neutral.

We are deeply concerned that the governance of this country is being dangerously mismanaged by a Prime Minster who is abusing the autopilot switch. With 3 000 people having just lost their jobs, we cannot tolerate yet another needless tax imposition.

We feel equally strongly that there is a negligence being displayed towards the pensioners in our community, who are now being placed under extreme pressure to meet the new tax burdens, and who do not, for the most part, have any access to additional money.

This policy will cause increased stagnation in the economy. It is clear that the business places which must now pay additional property taxes on top of all the other impositions of July will pass these on to the poor consumer yet again.

The Government must ease the pain.