Opposition Member calls Budget “package of deception”

By VonDez Phipps
Reporter-SKNVibes.com

Representative for Constituency #5 and member of the Opposition, Hon. Shawn Richards

Richards, the sole elected member of the People’s Action Movement (PAM) -the leading opposition party in St. Kitts, said the government had no genuine intentions to improve the quality of life of their citizens.

“This Budget comes at a time of economic difficulty, increased marginalisation, soaring hopelessness, national uncertainty and a crime explosion.

“The best way to describe the package here is a package of deception. It lacks any genuine vision for the development of the productive sectors of the economy even if some nice-sounding words suggest that it does. It lacks any serious plans to tackle the island’s uncertain electricity supply both in the long-term and the short-term. It pays lip service to genuine national human resource development that will allow our people to compete in an ever-changing global community. It shows that more money was allocated into the Ministry of National Security without suggesting a comprehensive plan to fight the crime wave.” ~~Adz:Right~~

He continued “The Budget can also be seen as one of the last major national acts of a government that has grown stale and has ran out of ideas; a government that is undermined by its own corrupt practices and its endemic petty politics; and a government that will do and say anything in a desperate attempt to be re-elected. The many promises listed in the Budget must be seen and taken in the context of a mutiny of broken promises over the years. This is merely a projection from a government that most Kittitians and Nevisians, at best, are sceptical towards and simply do not trust.”

Richards said the government cannot inspire the mobilization of the “collective wills” that are needed to deal with current economic realities. He opined that the Budget does not give hope to citizens who may soon face unemployment or a school-leaver in search of a scholarship or a former sugarcane worker seeking to become independent once more.

The member of Opposition also stated that the Budget “dances around the issue of the planned new tax, Value Added Tax (VAT)” as he projected that it may be introduced in 2009, contrary to what Minister of Finance Hon. Timothy Harris stated in the December 16 Budget Address.