Following the first reading of the Goods and Services Bill, 2021, in the Anguilla House of Assembly, on Tuesday, March 23, Premier and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ellis Lorenzo Webster, spoke in an interview with The Anguillian newspaper. His statement also came after the reading of two petitions from the Concerned Citizens of Anguilla protesting the Bill. Following is what the Premier said:
“I think the people know this is a democracy and that they have freedom of speech and expression. The petitions were brought to the House, signed, and we respect the will of the people that they have to be heard.
“Certainly, we cannot agree on everything but we understand, as a Government, that revenue has to be raised to do the work of Government and the work of the people, and this is one way that it can be done. This is something that we, certainly, were opposed to when we were campaigning. When we came in we found that it had been agreed to by the former administration, and we felt we had to proceed with it, given the implications. Certainly, the first reading had to be done so that we could get extension of the financial aid [from the UK Government] for COVID relief up to March 31st. We [also] had to do this so that we could get the policy-based loan from the Caribbean Development Bank because there is a revenue shortfall during this pandemic. Now, as we get people vaccinated; the country opened; tourism back on stream; and people get employed, we know that there is a chance that this country can rebound. And that is what our expectations are with God’s help.
“We have asked that this Bill, started back in October 2019, when the Interim Goods Tax, with Customs Duties, was done in anticipation of the GST which would have come in January 2021. We got it pushed back to January of 2022 when we were working on the Medium Economic and Fiscal Plan. We realise that there continues to be an economic scaring during this pandemic and so we have asked that the implementation date be pushed back, and we just got assent from UK Ministers that this can be done to the first of July, 2022.
“Now, we will see how things go with the economy, the country, the finances, the revenue, and it may be necessary, even after the passage of the Bill, to push it further back, but we have to understand that there are implications for that. Certainly, we had to give up several polices that we wanted to put in: increasing scholarships and training for our students; we had to give up on providing medical care for those over 70; we had to freeze paying the delayed salaries of public servants – among other things. There is one thing we are kept being asked to do. It is to cut the salaries for the statutory bodies and the public service; but we feel that if we did that it would cause significant economic hardship which we would not recover from. That is why we have been pushing back against the GST.
“We found in discussions and negotiations with the UK Government/the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office, that if we pushed past July 1, 2022, we would have to go into significant cuts for the public service, including cutting the size of the service. We do not feel that this is something we can sign on to. So we have made tough decisions. We understand the concerns of the people and I want them to know that we care about their wellbeing. We are concerned about where this country is going, and we want to make sure that we get to a state of economic and financial independence so that we are not reliant on others to carry us through.”
Responding to a question from The Anguillian newspaper that despite the many challenges he was facing, he did not appear to be overly unruffled, he replied:
“I am not unruffled because I spend a lot of sleepless nights, but the people went out and voted for us and gave us that mandate to represent their interests and so if we get flustered, and emotional, it doesn’t help the situation. We have to see it that we are here in this position competent, capable and able to carry out the work of the people of Anguilla. And so, with that, and the team that I have, who are constantly keeping me buoyed up, I think that we are going into the right direction – and we will be better off for it in the long run.”
