BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – OUTGOING Political Leader of the People’s Action Movement (PAM) Lindsay Grant has expressed the view that the government’s land-for-debt deal, which was effected through the passage of the St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank (Vesting of Certain Lands) Bill 2012, will not settle the amount of debt which is claimed would be settled.
“I want to say that the swapping of land for debt which was made recently does not, and I state does not, reduce the national debt by so called $1 billion as the Prime Minister contends…,”
Grant explained while speaking on WINNFM 98.9’s VOICES programme Thursday (Sept. 27).
In explaining the reasoning behind his statement, Grant indicated that it is inadequate for the settlement of the debt, should one judge from the value of the land.
“The reason why I am saying that…if you work out the value of the land based upon the 1 200 acres for that $1 billion, it is suggesting that the value of the land is about $750 000 per acre, about $17.21 per square foot. I am saying the land does not value that. So when they are saying that the debt has been reduced by one billion dollars, I think that that’s a fallacy.”
The other area of concern that Grant expressed is, should the land be valued or sold so that it settles the $1 billion debt, it would be priced far beyond the reach of the ordinary man and woman of St. Kitts-Nevis.
“…and therefore it would mean that those vast areas of land – 1 200 acres – would be inaccessible to the ordinary man and woman on the street because National Bank or whatever company they have instituted and incorporated would have to recover for at least the minimum amount to cover the debt.
“So that what we are infact saying is that it is either that the debt is going to be now more than what they are saying it is because it has not been reduced by the value or, secondly, we would have to end up selling more lands to get to a reduction of the billion dollars…”
And by Grant’s calculations, “there is a shortfall of some $400 000 000 and if you do the calculation, you are then speaking about another maybe 800 or so acres of land which is to my mind preposterous because of the small nature of St. Kitts and Nevis”.
The PAM leader – who shares the sentiments of many across the Federation – made known his concern about the passage of the St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank (Vesting of Certain Lands) Bill 2012 without the proposal passing through the court of public opinion.
“I believe it is such a critical matter that this ought to have been ventilated for a long period of time rather than for one day in Parliament. This is such a monumental decision by the government to be done in one day that it is just unbelievable that it’s going to now affect the next two three generations, and we are dealing with this matter in such a simplified manner.”
