BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PRIME MINISTER and Minister of Finance, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas has indicated that his Tuesday (Dec. 9) Budget Day Presentation would be one that reflects no tax increases on the people of St. Kitts and Nevis.
The announcement was made yesterday (Dec. 3) during his Monthly Press Conference held in the Parliamentary Lounge at Government Headquarters.
Dr. Douglas told the nation that the policies implemented by his Government have already propelled the Federation to the leading position in the Eastern Caribbean in terms of manufactured exports to the United States, economic growth, direct foreign investment, debt reduction and other key metrics.
“The Budget that will be presented on December 9th will make clear the fact that this Government is poised to implement the development goal that will build on the unquestioned transformations, changes and progress that we have already produced all across the nation. And so I urge the close attention of both the media and the public to this particular event,” he said.
The Prime Minister stressed that over the years, the people of St. Kitts and Nevis had given his Administration the space it needed for its policies to work. “And because the people allowed the Government’s policies to work, there will be no need for any new taxes in the Government’s 2015 Budget.”
On Tuesday (Dec. 2), whilst on his weekly ‘Ask the Prime Minister’ programme, Dr. Douglas told listeners the reason he had been urging them to annually follow the Budget proceedings is because it is during that those occasions people all over the world get a clear sense of the plans and priorities of the governments they elected.
Later that evening at a public meeting in Sandy Point, the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party’s Leader also made reference to next week’s Budget that he insinuated would be approved by Parliament, where his Government has seven members as against the Opposition’s six.
“The 2015 Budget, really comrades, will set the framework for the continued development of our country for the next five years. It is in fact a glimpse of what Labour intends to do, beginning in 2015 over the next five years,” Dr. Douglas told party supporters.
The Party Leader also spoke to the national debt and hinted that he believes it would not be an issue in the upcoming election because of the steps taken by his Government in its significant reduction.
“When we speak of where we go from here, we want to be able to tackle very seriously the challenges that we are facing. We went through a period! National debt was one of the highest in the world, it is today from 200 percent of GDP, the national debt is just below 90 per cent, maybe 87 percent is what it is right now as I speak. The Central Bank only recently indicated that St. Kitts-Nevis is number one in terms of the countries which will achieve the debt reduction target of 60 percent of GDP. Only St. Kitts and Nevis they say can achieve that. That is why I said to you five years ago, in the next general election there will not be any issue in the election to come.”
Dr. Douglas also told party supporters that he was told St. Kitts and Nevis’ growth rate could be as much as six percent for this year.
