Anguillians Will Have To Further Tighten Their Belts

It is a frightening situation and all and sundry in Anguilla are crying out about the increased taxes and the difficulties to survive comfortably. The Anguilla Government is in the same quandary as other Governments around the world and is being challenged to find a way out of the dilemma. While Mr. Bellingham has not spoken directly about the imposition of taxes, he made it clear that the British Government had provided technical assistance to work with the Tax Reform Group in Anguilla; and he urged the Anguilla Government to take advantage of the technical assistance and recommendations to cut expenditure noting, among other matters, those “recommendations flowing out of the Civil Service Review”.

The above is an obvious suggestion to look at cost-cutting measures relating to the Civil Service. This is a difficult proposition but it is strengthened by the Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association which held a meeting with the Chief Minister and other Government officials on Tuesday to protest a proposed 10% guest service tax on restaurants and car rental contracts. The Association said its members would refuse to pay the tax. It asked the Government to consider a four-day work week in the Civil Service, and one or two members suggested that Government look at reducing the high cost of some of the statutory departments and boards.

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Further, the Association made this point: The “Government of Anguilla must show where they are committed to making adjustments also. Government should look at eliminating the use of public vehicles and gas to members of the Government, and establish tight controls on vehicles used by employees to perform their duties.” What has been suggested is that rather than imposing taxes, various ways and means of cutting public expenditure should be pursued.

The Chief Minister was vehement at the meeting that he would not impose the 10% tax referred to above, and that, as a matter of fact, his Government was anti-tax. He brushed aside questions about the origin of the 10% tax, indicating that it had stemmed from the British Government rather than the Anguilla Government. There appeared, however, to have been no doubt among those at the meeting that the tax was the brainchild of the Tax Reform Group in its efforts to find additional taxation to raise needed revenue.

It is difficult to blame the group for trying to find sources of incometo finance the island’s public services. The Chief Minister may have taken “the wind out of the sail” of Jerome Roberts, who is intimately part of the Tax Reform Group, and probablyVed Gandhi, Technical Adviser to the Government, both of whom declined to comment on the 10% tax issue.The others at the head table, the Finance Officer, and the Comptroller of Inland Revenue, also had nothing to say.

If the 10% tax on restaurants and car rentals was intended to test the resolve or response of the hoteliers and restaurant operators, their resounding no was loud and convincing enough. The Chief Minister, a shrewd politician, seemed to have starred in affirming his personal objection to the intended measure whether to the embarrassment of his own tax crafters, or at the expense of the British Government whom he blamed.What will eventually emerge as a comprehensive and workable package of tax reform measures, to balance the budget and wipe out the increasing deficits, is anyone’s guess; but what seemed to have been the overarching preference, among persons at the meeting, however difficult it appears, was a carefully calculated cut in public expenditure.
Whether as a result ofgruelling taxation, or a sizeable reduction in spending, the people of Anguilla will inevitably be obliged to further tighten their belts.