BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – LEADER of the People’s Action Movement (PAM), Lindsay Grant has laid the blame for the Federation’s economic quandary squarely at the feet of Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas and his Labour administration.
“The poor state of affairs is a direct result of the mismanagement of the economy by the Minister of Finance and Prime Minister, Dr. Denzil Douglas and his uncaring Labour Administration,” Grant told the nation yesterday (Nov. 1) during a press conference held to air his party’s views on the implementation of VAT.
The Value Added Tax (VAT) system was implemented in the Federation of St. Christopher and Nevis yesterday, approximately seven months after it was announced by Dr. Douglas during his 2010 Budget Address.
The tax, applicable at a rate of 17 percent, is said to have replaced a number of taxes including Consumption Tax, Hotel and Restaurant Tax, Cable TV Tax, Vehicle Rental Levy, Export Duty, Public Entertainment Tax, Lotteries Tax and Traders Tax.
PAM’s political leader claimed that the Federation is “broke and heading to bankruptcy” and this is the reason for the sudden thrust of VAT upon the nation.
“The country is broke because of the wasteful and reckless spending of a government that is clouded in secrecy and deceit about the financial management of the treasury. VAT is being introduced because over the past 15 years Labour had wasted our tax dollars on mysterious projects such as La Valley. On this project alone, government has spent over US$250M and to date they have not given an account on where the money has gone. In the meanwhile, nothing can be shown for some of these projects, such as La Valley.”
Grant indicated that his party had repeatedly warned the government to cease its practice of “wanton spending and squandering of the country’s scarce resources”; pleas which he said evidently fell on deaf ears.
“We drew attention to the fact that we were spending too much of our resources on debt repayment; 46 cents on the dollar from the last check. We drew attention to the fact our overspending on government contracts without any accountability would be detrimental in the long run. Most, if not all our utterances were treated with disregard and disdain by the government. It is now clear that the Labour government has been spending more money than it has been receiving in revenue.
“As a result, each year, since new Labour has been in office, our country has had huge deficits or overspending that has now created a huge national debt of over $3 000 000 000. This makes St. Kitts and Nevis the most indebted nation in the world in terms of our debt to GDP ratio. This is the reason, my fellow citizens, that the Labour government is introducing VAT.
Because of the unheeded called, Grant expressed, the Labour government’s careless spending habits have “come back to haunt us…”
