BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – “IF there was any doubt, the Labour government has now confirmed that it truly does not care about the masses.” This was the proclamation made days ago by leader of the People’s Action Movement (PAM), Lindsay F. Grant.
The political leader was at the time of comment speaking at his party’s press conference to publicly voice its views on the implementation of the Value Added Tax System in the Federation of St. Christopher and Nevis.
PAM’s press conference coincided with the date of implementation (Nov. 1) and, according to the members of the party, that date marked “an important day in the financial annals of our country and more importantly in the personal lives of each and every one of our citizens…”
Grant expressed that by implementing VAT, the Labour-led government has effectively placed “more burdens on the lives of the poor and vulnerable citizens of St. Kitts and Nevis. Today, my fellow citizens, is the day chosen by the Labour government to create higher prices, introduce more taxes and reduce the standard of living for the working class people of both islands”.
“It is a day that will go down in infamy; a day when those who claimed to be for the poor have instead done all they could to make life harder for the unemployed, the elderly and those struggling to make ends meet,” he added.
The bottom line of the implementation of VAT, as Grant explained, is that “we will now have to pay taxes on services and products that before were free from such levies. The cost of living will increase while the quality of our lives will decrease. The advent of the Value Added Tax will determine for a very long time, the economic well being of the citizens of St. Kitts and Nevis”.
Striking a comparison between the Bradshaw-led and the Douglas-led Administrations, Grant declared that while the former claimed to champion the cause of the poor, the latter has distanced itself from those principles.
“The New Labour has been the most uncaring and anti-working class in the history of modern St. Kitts and Nevis. They have drifted so far from the principles that were once espoused by their predecessors, that Manchester, Bradshaw and Sebastian would not recognise them, were they to return from the great beyond. While old Labour claimed to be champions of the poor, new Labour has become the worst enemy of the working class. Our situation is bleak and needs to be corrected almost immediately.”
Reminiscing on the January 2010 election campaign, Grant noted that the PAM was fully aware that the people of this nation were already burdened; therefore, “PAM…campaigned on a platform to ease the burden of the people of the country…We understood that the country was going through challenges and it was for that reason we felt that the burden had to be eased”.
