The temperature in Anguilla has risen significantly. However, in this instance it is not the result of global warming or any other natural phenomena. It is wholly and solely the result of the proposed implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in January 2022. If you tuned in to the consultation meeting held on Monday 22nd February, at the House of Assembly, you would have been a witness to the rising temperatures. The consultation was led by the Honourable Premier and Minister of Finance, Dr Ellis Lorenzo Webster, assisted by Mr Lonnie Hobson, Acting Comptroller of Inland Revenue, and a GST Advisor.
The Premier was at pains to explain why his Government was proposing to implement the GST. In a nutshell, his explanation was that his Government had little choice because of:
• Anguilla’s debt which he attributed to the banking resolution;
• Government’s shaky financial position which he attributed to poor management of finances by the previous Administration;
• Government’s inability to raise enough revenue to meet expenditure — and the British Government’s insistence on Anguilla implementing a tax that would address this; and
• The agreement that the previous Government had with the British Government for budgetary assistance.
In short, the Premier appeared to take no responsibility for the advent of the GST, but sought to explain why his hands are tied — and laid blame elsewhere for it. His approach was one of acceptance that, while difficult, this was a necessary step to get Anguilla back on a sound fiscal footing.
However, his supporters were not interested in hearing any of it. I believe it is fair to say that most, if not all, of the persons who spoke at the consultation, that evening, are supporters of the Premier and his Government. They did not make it a secret during the campaign — and in fact some of them may have appeared on political platforms at various points. But they did not spare their views on the GST, the British Government, and the fact that, in their view the Premier is allowing this tax to be imposed on the Anguillian people.
While Mr Hobson went to great lengths to seek to explain how the GST would work, I must admit that I am still confused — and I am sure many other persons are as well. A lot of sensitisation will need to be done. Regardless of how it is supposed to work, the nuts and bolts didn’t seem to matter to most persons in the audience, except for Joe who wanted to understand how his small business would be impacted. What most people were clear about is that they don’t want it — and that they are dissatisfied with how the Premier is handling the situation. According to them, the Premier needs to stand up to the British and tell them that, with a pandemic, an economic recession, and a period of high unemployment, now is not the time to impose new taxes on the people of Anguilla.
The onslaught of questions and comments for which the Premier could give no responses that seemed to satisfy the small crowd, had one common theme – no GST. If the Premier’s supporters could be so directly opposed to the implementation of the GST by the APM Government, I wouldn’t want to hear from his adversaries.
We obviously don’t know what will happen with the implementation of the GST over the coming months, but we can hope, at least, for a better understanding of what it is all about. The one thing I was able to gather from Mr Hobson’s presentation is that it is a broad-based tax which I interpret to mean it is designed to ensure that everybody contributes, not just a few — and to my mind this means that people will be less likely to evade paying the tax.
Sharing the burden is not necessarily a bad thing. The problem is that we don’t yet know the weight of the burden that each of us will be expected to carry. This may be the deciding factor in whether the temperature lowers or reaches boiling point. The Premier and his Government will then have to make the final call – no GST for we, or GST for all ah we.
