Chief Minister, and Minister of Finance, Mr. Victor Banks, says the sixty million pounds granted to Anguilla in humanitarian aid by the UK Government, following the impact of Hurricane Irma, is nothing to be scoffed at – is plenty money, but not enough.
Mr. Banks made the comments while speaking on the Government’s interactive radio programme, on Tuesday night, June 5, hosted by Public Relations Officer, Mr. Mark Romney.
Mr. Romney wondered whether as a result of his visit to Anguilla Lord Tariq Ahmad had probably seen the need for an increase in the 60 million pounds.
Mr. Banks replied: “Whenever we visit the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, we always encourage especially Ministers to come to Anguilla because I strongly believe that when people come to Anguilla they get a better feel of what’s happening here. Our people are very friendly, very engaging, and I think that they [the British Ministers] recognise the kind of people they are dealing with in this part of the world – that we really want to be self-sufficient; and want to do things the right way. Obviously, the [hurricane] disaster that is affecting us at this time is something serious. It is not something that we can carry on business as usual.
“We are grateful for the sixty million pounds. It is unprecedented, as far as I know, in terms of the kind of response from the British Government in this part of the world – especially the Overseas Territories. So, obviously, it is nothing to scoff at… It is the point that we were making and I think that point went home very strongly. I am [have been] engaged with Lord Ahmad here on this visit and that’s the result of our discussions in the UK. On every occasion he seemed to be a very reasonable person, and I think that his visit here reinforced a lot of the things that we have been saying to him about Anguilla. He saw for himself the kind of challenges that we face.
“You said that maybe he will give us a bit more. I think that it has been recognised that sixty million pounds is a lot of money but it is not enough. It can never be enough, and there are different pockets of funding that we are talking about as well – not necessarily large funding of the quantum that we would appreciate. But certainly we are looking at ways and means of improving the response by having some additional funds to do specific projects.
“I think the visit was very important for Lord Ahmad, as the person responsible for the Overseas Territories and for Anguilla in particular; and I think he felt very good about his visit and I think he said as much – not only on public media, but also privately to members of Government and persons he met with while he was here. The reports are good.”
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister and Minister of Finance indicated that the deficit of 25 million dollars in the Anguilla Government’s 2018 budget might not, after all, be that big eventually.
“We are going to do much better than that, but I think we all need to be conservative in terms of revenue so that we can continue to operate with strict controls in anticipation that revenue can experience shortfalls… but we have to be optimistic.”
Following other questions relating to meeting certain financial requirements and targets of Government’s services to the public, Mr. Banks replied: “Nobody likes taxation but it is a necessary – for the lack of a better word – evil because that is the only way that you can provide the revenue to provide critical services for the people of Anguilla. People only recognise the importance of Government having the revenue when there is an emergency and they want the Government to take a particular action. Government’s funds have to come from somewhere so the Government, like you, in your household, has got to prepare yourself for emergences as well as everything else.”
Chief Minister Banks added: “A lot of the solid principles that several Ministers of the British Government, over the years, have been talking about are that Governments should increase revenue; manage their expenditure; and put aside savings which we call reserves. These are basic principles that represent good governance. They are not talking things that are wrong. They are talking things that are right, so we as a responsible Government, and we, as responsible citizens, must realise that we have an obligation, as a Government, to ensure that fair taxes are put in place; and citizens have an obligation to pay their fair share of taxes. This is good for the country, and Government has to have in place taxes to deal with the social issues of education, health, community development, sports, recreation, roads, sanitation and environmental services, scholarships and a whole range of things. This money is not sitting in the Treasury at the beginning of the year. It comes from measures that are put in place to ensure these services.
“At times when we have the disaster we have now, it is always going to be a challenge to raise revenue, given the revenue heads we have. The key revenue heads we have are customs duty, accommodation tax, stamp duty and so forth. After the hurricane, with the hotel plant being down, you know that accommodation tax will be reduced and customs duty from imports will also be reduced. Fortunately, there is an aspect of the process of recovery which includes funding from the construction sector so when this sector kicks in, then customs revenue benefit. This shortfall in accommodation tax which comes from the tourism plant, up and operating, can be met, to a certain extent, by customs revenue from the construction sector and new investments.”
