Midway in the preparation of the 2014 national budget, Chief Minister and Minister of Finance, Hubert Hughes, has expressed fear that, in his own words, “the budget figures are not looking good.”
He lamented, in a statement to Radio Anguilla on Monday evening, that the island’s declining economy and lack of tourism development were seriously impacting the Government’s finances.
“Our budget depends on a strong tourism product, and right now our tourism industry is not producing,” he said. “The golf course project, which is on 275 acres of land, is doing nothing and Cap Juluca is doing nothing. They are two major contributors to the economy but are doing nothing, so it will take quite a while before we can have a strong budget.”
Mr Hughes went on: “The reality of the situation is something we cannot alter. The British Government must understand that we are not putting any political consideration on the budget. If we cannot come up with good figures, then they got to understand that it is what it is – and I have told them that there must be no delay in assenting to our budget.”
Asked whether the proposed Value Added Tax would be one of the revenue-raising measures in the 2014 budget, the Chief Minister and Minister of Finance replied: “You can’t work on the Valued Added Tax when you got a dead economy. The problem of Anguilla’s finances is economics. You have got to get the economics right. You can’t take blood out of stone. You have to get the economic process going.
“The last Governor actually messed up the economics, telling developers not to develop the economy while Hubert Hughes is in office. He has thrown us back and even the golf course is not producing what it is supposed to produce. Anguilla is in a mess. Let’s take for instance these deferred payments [to civil servants]. If you don’t have a strong economy, you can’t get strong finances; and if you don’t have money, you can’t pay out all these obligations.”
Meanwhile, Mr Hughes disclosed that the Government recently had discussions with Cap Juluca’s owner, Mr Charles Hickox, and his financial partner, who agreed to upgrade the hotel’s rooms. He also spoke of further discussions which would hopefully lead to the issuing of an Alien Landholding Licence and the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding as soon as possible.
The Chief Minister added that the Government had been hoping to compulsorily acquire Cap Juluca, but waited for a year to get the exact price of the property from a firm in Tortola. He explained that the firm was still ironing out certain issues which had caused a setback to the Government.
