BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS (December 15, 2017) -- Christmas came early when on the evening of Thursday November 30 Prime Minister of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis Dr the Hon Timothy Harris, who is also the Minister of Finance, announced that his Cabinet had consented to giving public servants a Christmas bonus in the form of a double salary.
In paying the double salary, the Team Unity Administration was not being driven by calls that had been made by the Opposition, but by the fact that up to September of this year the fiscal performance of the Federal Government had reflected a surplus on the recurrent account, the overall account and the primary account, with all economic indicators pointing to robust growth in 2018.
All who would have heard the Opposition agitate for a double salary would have expected the loudest applause from those quarters. Not a word to congratulate the Prime Minister for determining that a double salary ought to be paid. What a tragic moral vacuum! The way they went silent like a punctured tyre would have left many thinking that the double will not be paid to those in the opposition.
Prime Minister Harris is the Prime Minister of all. Whatever he feels that citizens and residents deserve, with the support of his strong and unshakable Team Unity Cabinet, it is rolled out to all irrespective of who they are - from a political standpoint.
That the Team Unity paid a double salary last year, and the fact that the Federation was heavily impacted by Hurricanes Irma and Maria this year, the Opposition had expected that Team Unity would not be able to pay the double salary and hence their loud demands. Sometimes some people do not know when they are barking up the wrong tree.
This is a double salary payment made back to back, Team Unity Government having offered a double salary last year. That is what leadership is all about. When the Opposition were in government they never achieved that feat and the reason why the very essence of seeing good leadership at work is driving them hyper, making rhetoric utterances.
Thanks to the admirable leadership and fiscal prudence and acumen displayed by Prime Minister Dr the Hon Timothy Harris, the double salary will not be the only early Christmas gift that would have come the way of all the citizens and residents of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
As you read this commentary today (Friday December 15), citizens and residents have been making beelines to shopping centres of their choice since very early today to partake of the VAT free day announced by the Team Unity Administration under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Dr the Hon Timothy Harris.
With Team Unity having Prime Minister Harris as the Minister of Finance, the Federation has seen three consecutive years of tax free budgets, three consecutive years of surplus budgets, and three consecutive years of positive growth in the economy - not to forget two years of double salary.
No other country in CARICOM, indeed no other country in the world, has been able to do what Prime Minister Harris is doing - that is to give a back to back double salary, give special reduction on all items via the VAT reduced rate day.
Because of Dr Harris’ wise management of the economy, today Friday December 15 commercial houses will have their largest sales day on record.
In yet another of the early Christmas gifts to the citizens and residents of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis this year, on Wednesday 6th December Prime Minister Harris announced a tax-free and surplus budget for 2018.
The Opposition, true to form, tried to poke holes into the sound budget during the budget debate in the National Assembly, but were stopped in their tracks by Prime Minister Harris who pointed to the hypocrisy of the Opposition, and notably the former prime minister for terming the 2018 Budget as being a ‘manipulation’ one, yet in 2011 he took the Federation to the IMF to borrow EC$227 million under its Stand-By Arrangement.
Good leadership matters and good leaders are highly visible. That is a fact.
In response to this year’s budget presentation, President of the St. Kitts and Nevis Chamber of Industry and Commerce Mr José Rosa is quoted as saying that he was confident that the capital projects and programmes outlined by Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Dr the Hon Timothy Harris will further stimulate the local economy.
He told the Press Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister on Thursday December 7: “I think that the Budget in general that was presented is balanced, meaning that the expenditure is not going to weigh more than the expected revenues, which means that the Government will be able to get a surplus.”
While St. Kitts and Nevis is doing so fantastically well, other countries in the region like Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago to name just a few, are going through hard times. St Kitts and Nevis is therefore blessed to have an exceptional leader in Prime Minister Harris at this time.
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