Over the past year and a half, there has been much talk in Anguilla about who is responsible for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) – Anguilla’s newest fumbling political football.
The Anguilla Progressive Movement (APM) political structure and its supporters say that the GST is the child of the Anguilla United Front (AUF), and the AUF is saying that it is the APM’s doing.
People line up on the side-lines in support of their political party, wanting to blame the other side for GST. APM supporters and politicians are blaming the AUF for introducing the GST, the AUF politicians and supporters are levelling criticism at the APM for saying they would not agree to any GST but yet, they have put it into law and have brought it on the people of Anguilla at a time that will destroy Anguilla.
Government’s AUF Opposition is voicing displeasure with the timing of GST, noting that in the current climate it is not right to roll out GST.
During the recovery from Hurricane Irma and the onslaught of COVID-19, the AUF administration got down on its knees asking the British Government for assistance. In response to that cry for help, the British Government agreed to give the AUF administration just under EC$100 million tied to a commitment from the AUF that the government would introduce GST just after the 2020 general election.
The APM stated all during that period that GST is a bad tax and if their party got elected, they would not impose it on the people of Anguilla, but rather, they would find another source of funds to deal with the challenges facing Anguilla at the time.
Fast forward…
A few months after being elected to office, the same APM members who gave Anguillians the assurance – prior to election – that GST would be implemented “over our dead bodies”, quickly collapsed into the arms of the British Government and have since been saying that “GST is a good broad-based tax for Anguilla”.
Ironically, the AUF, who signed on to the agreement with the British Government, are now highly critical of the GST roll out, stopping just short of calling it bad tax.
What is interesting is that neither the AUF nor the APM is talking about alternatives to GST as a way to confront the challenges facing Anguilla. How about cost reduction? Can someone from either party speak to that? How about creatively expanding or diversifying the economy? Can someone from either party speak to that? How about creatively finding ways to keep more money in our economy as opposed to spending it on our dependence on imports? Can someone from either party speak to that? How about creatively finding ways to lower the cost of living for everybody in Anguilla – including the Government? Can someone from either party, please, just speak truth to these issues?
Well, GST is coming to Anguilla in exactly SEVEN days and the big question for all of us still remains: Who is really responsible for the introduction of GST in Anguilla, and does it really matter?
We have concluded that the only way to know for sure, is to conduct a DNA test. Somewhere in the not-to-distant future, this will be done. If GST turns out to be a good tax, I am sure that the APM will want to own it and the AUF will want to own it. However, if it turns out to be a bad tax, they will both want to run far away from it. Anguilla – as MOM – will still be shafted and left to “nurture and take care of it.
—-Contributed without editing by The Anguillian—-
