The Anguilla Chamber of Commerce and Industry is opposed to various tax measures that do not appear to be based on any unified policy of Government. It wants to see the growth and flourishing of the island’s economy not by further taxation, but by greater investment. That view has been expressed by the President of the Chamber, Mr. Keithley Lake, in an interview with The Anguillian.
Mr. Lake said that the Chamber generally agreed with the position outlined by the Government’s revenue Task Force: that there would be a comprehensive study of revenue and expenditure, and that the plan would be put forward to the people in 2014.
He observed that there was a need for an in-depth study of all the various levels and sources of revenue in order to come up with a simple system that people would feel was fair and equitable, and would achieve the fiscal needs of Anguilla.He thought the people would be happy with that. “What we are opposed to are tax measures that don’t seemto be based on any unified policy,” he went on. “At the same time, given the present state of our economy,taxes can only suppress it and nobody wants that.
“There are a package of taxes that further tax employers and employees. We already have the Stabilisation Levy (which is supposed to be temporary) which taxes employers and employees,… and now you have these additional taxes on top of that levy. I think that from an economic standpoint that is unacceptable and, remember, there is not a single word on what is being done to stimulate the economy.
“I recognise that we are not a large country like theUnited States, orGreat Britain, where they can apply a hundred million dollars to building roads and other things. But we can, if we had a sensible policy to begin with, make sure our tourism is promoted in a right way so that we can get tourists here, and our people torecognise the importance of tourism and support it wholeheartedly. It is everybody’s business and we should have a culture that this is our number one industry and we have to support it.
“When people come toAnguillathey want to feel welcome and be treated nicely. We have to address the issues of crime so that people are not afraid to come to our island. All of these little things add up to boost our tourism industry. If the industry grows, our construction industry is going to pick up. When these two engines of the economy are running, we will again return to what have been called good times – but it is not going to happen automatically. We have to work at it.”
Mr. Lake said that while tourism was a significant revenue earner, caution should be taken against creating a whole new bureaucracy to collect the regime of general taxes needed to boost public revenue. “That would be counter-productive,” he stressed. “You need to use existing mechanisms to collect revenue. The thing is to keep government expenditures where they are, or to decrease them and still have the revenues increasing. At the same time, whatever we do on the taxing end must have the twin effect of stimulating the economy.
“People must have more disposable income to spend. More tourists are going to come to our island and there will be more construction activity. These are some of the things we need to really drive our economy. It seems to us as if every few months somebody in the Government wakes up and says ‘my God, we are short of xamount and we need to increase this or that’. We need to start with a clean sheet and say ‘this is how we will go forward as a country with the aim that whatever we do has to have a stimulating effect on the economy’. It is not enough to criticise the Government or the policy-makers. What we are saying is that we have to come together and really chart a clear way forward that is going to be predictable enough to give sustainability to the economy. It is very simple.”
Mr. Lake was asked whether the Chamber had approached Government on the proposed new taxes. “The Chamber has been working with the various task forces and our views have been communicated to them,” he replied. “I cannot say that we have spoken as yet to the policy people, but I can assure you that this will be done and probably in a short time.”
One of the taxes that kept cropping up during the interview was the Interim Stabilisation Levy which Mr. Lake was not certain would remain as an interim measure. He said national health care, in which theGovernment stated the levy would eventually end up, was a laudable goal. “Every society has an obligation to make sure that its citizens have access to affordable health care, but we just cannot jump into it,” he pointed out. “We have to approach it the same way that I said we should approach taxation of any kind. It has to be studied and we will have to design a system that is going to provide the care which is to be affordable.”
He was of the view that among the issues to be carefully considered were the availability of proper medical records to avoid duplication from various sources, and a medical infrastructure that could deal with associated problems. “It is good to have this as a goal, but I don’t see the planning; and if you are going to consider the Stabilisation Levy as [part of] a national health care plan, and the money ends up in the Consolidated Fund, forget it,” he emphasised. “If you are going to do that, put it in a segregation fund and say this is what it is for, and then we can make sure that we spend the money efficiently. If the money is going into a Consolidated Fund it is like going into a black hole. You will never see it.
“Health care is expensive and we should approach it in a correct manner, and get the health professionals, the public and the insurers involved. It is in everybody’s interest to have a good system that is affordable and accessible, instead of just saying that we are going to flip this (Interim Stabilisation Levy) over to medical care and not have it in a segregated fund.”
The Chamber President stressed that his business organisation had at its disposal tax professionals, medical personnel and others who could be assigned to panels as resource persons to work with Government. “We just do not want to be opposing something because it sounds good. We want to be part of the solution, and are prepared to do that,” he said. “We are going to be working with other business organisations which approached us so that we have a unified front. But the emphasis of the Chamber is that we want to see growth. We want to see the economy stimulated, but we are not at all opposed to sitting and discussing this whole range of issues that affect all of our citizens, in terms of tax and health policies and other matters. We certainly want to be part of that discussion.”
He said the Chamber was involved in a number of activities aimed at helping small businesses, and had received several appeals from them stating that they needed assistance to continue to function. “We are helping them to understand the requirements involved in undertaking business,” he continued. “First of all, does it make sense to be involved in that particular business? It doesn’t mean because you love it, you have to be in it.We want to make sure that they know how to account for money; understand that while they take in money, they also have bills to pay. We are having workshops on business planning thus trying to increase the educational level of entrepreneurs; and we are working actively with theAnguillaCommunity Collegeon a lot of these efforts.
“We are also engaged with ANGLEC because it has been brought to our attention that there may be people with medical needs who have been denied electricity. We think that as a society that is really problematic because people may be at home with different medical devices that have to be powered. Our executive staff is speaking with ANGLEC personnel to see if there are any ways in which we can address those concerns.
“We are also now engaged in a food drive to make sure that the less fortunate in our society can have access to some of the staples to get by from day to day. People will therefore see barrels located at various business places in which they can deposit goods, or even send money to the Chamber so that we can give it to the organisation we are co-sponsoring with (Hope Centre) to make sure that the least of us are having our basic needs met.”
Asked how established the Chamber of Commerce and Industry was inAnguilla, Mr. Lake replied: “The Chamber has grown over the past years. We are now up to 73 supporting members and are growing every day. We are constantly looking at ways in which we can make life easier for businesses. We work with the Customs Department to address a lot of issues. Our Executive Director conducts a number of workshops on a monthly basis, bringing expertise to our members so that they can be more effective; and we are trying to educate our members on how to be more competitive in the marketplace. The fact is that Anguillians, like everybody else, have access to the internet and have a lot of information. If the businesses do not react to these realities, they are going to be left behind.
“We have been encouraging merchants, along with a committee set up by the Government, to pool resources to import goods at a cheaper cost and then to compete on an individual basis in selling these products. But a lot of these things require culture change and that is not going to happen over night. We have to work together collectively for the common good of being able to bring in goods at a far more attractive price than we are able to do now.”
Mr. Lake said the Chamber was receiving a small, but regular, subvention from Government which was allowing the organisation to function; and the Government had also provided the Chamber with good accommodation space, at a nominal rental fee, to operate effectively. He added that there was an effort by the Government to involve the Chamber in some of its policies to protect local businesses on an ongoing basis.
Of course, one of the main desires of the Chamber is to see the growth ofAnguilla’s economy not by further taxation, but by more investment.
