By all accounts, the fiscal and economic situation in Anguilla appears to be very gloomy as 2013 approaches. The position is that rather than getting better, the situation is getting worse. The Chief Minister put the matter squarely when he said, earlier this week, that “Anguilla is falling apart at its seams. Nothing is happening.”
It is certainly not encouraging to any people when their leader appears to be so frustrated and hopeless, losing faith in the very economy he is trying to build, and resorting to blaming others for the problems facing the island. The fact, however, is that we are all caught up in a worsening situation. There is a need for both the Anguilla Government and the British Government to cooperatively put their heads together, and work realistically towards the financial and economic relief of the island and its people, lest we return to the harrowing days of abject poverty endured under St. Kitts.
The Chief Minister is relentlessly promulgating the idea that the escape route out of the problems which Anguilla is facing is through independence. The main argument is that the Government would then have the freedom to seek and obtain financial assistance from any source,and generally would be able to run the island’s affairs without British intervention or hindrance. But the territory is seriously divided on the issue of independence and the people’s views for, and against, are still to be sought through a referendum. The British Government is standing in the middle, saying it is ready to talk, when Anguilla is ready. The question on the minds of the more cautious persons is whether this daring step to independence should be a result of frustration, power-seeking,or a genuine readiness for such a status.
Be that as it may, the present aim should be to do all that is necessary to allay the fears and suffering of our people. Right now, the burden of taxation is a heavy one and it is difficult to imagine, despite what the Chief Minister says, that some tax measures are not included in the 2013 budget. The latest turn of events, in that direction, is a proposal discussed and agreed in the Executive Council this week to remove the lower sealing in the Interim Stabilisation Levy. Such a decision means that everybody, across the board – from top to bottom – would be required to pay what is in fact an income tax. There would be no exemption – not even for persons earning a meagre wage fromtwo thousand dollars to one dollar, as the proposal suggests!
Thatis an alarming requirement which would negatively impact so many people in Anguilla, in the lower brackets of the economy, who are finding it extremely difficult to eke out a daily living. The Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association was the first private sector organisation to angrily react to the proposal – apparently even as it was being discussed in Executive Council. The AHTA called for an immediate meeting with Government. The proposal was in all probability taken to EXCO by Chief Minister Hughes who has responsibility for Finance, and was agreed to by all. No sooner than the matter blew up in public the Chief Minister took the position that he was not in agreement with the proposal. He apportioned blame on the “Inland Revenue people”, saying “it was inadvertently done” and that the matter would be re-visited by EXCO. What is of much significance is that the Chief Minister repeatedly vowed that the much-criticised Interim Stabilisation Levy would be stopped at the end of this year – 2012 – to give way to a National Health Insurance Fund.
Instead of the demise of the levy, the new proposal has in fact widened its sweep across all income levels on the island. It is known that the levy has been a big crutch for the budget during this year and, from all indications, it will continue to be so in the unforeseeable future. It was a matter of bad faith to have told the people it would be discontinued, and now, instead, to seek to impose a further burden on them.
The immediate fiscal and economic future for Anguilla does not look good as the Chief Minister has acknowledged. It is foreboding and frightening. The common view among the public is that while independence is something to look forward to, eventually, the low and uncertain prospects of the economy do not offer the required support for such a status, as urgently as independence may appear. Further, the likelihood of Anguilla being able to borrow or otherwise attract financial assistance from funding sources, now drying up, is questionable. It will be the task of the Government to convince the people about independence in the near future and to prepare them for such a move.
In the meantime, as the fiscal and economic situation continues to flounder, we all will have to buckle our belts and draw them tighter as Anguilla goes into 2013.
