Opposition Leader, Mrs. Cora Richardson-Hodge, described the APM’s 2022 Budget as lacking creativity, innovation and strategic direction, ‘while advancing prosperity through taxation.’
Speaking during the Opposition’s weekly radio programme Just the Facts, Mrs. Richardson-Hodge stated: “One of the main issues that I find missing in the Budget is a plan. The lack of direction is obvious in this 2022 Budget. This is not surprising, as this government came to office without a manifesto, without a plan.”
“Where is it that you are planning to take the country?” she asked: “There is no plan, except for the implementation of taxes. So, we are going to tax a dead economy to get ourselves out, and move towards [prosperity] – advancing through adversity, restoring prosperity through taxation.”
Commenting on the government’s budgetary estimates of expenditure and revenue as they relate to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) – slated to be in effect from July 2022 – Opposition member, Mr. Evan Rogers, supported Mrs. Richardson-Hodge’s criticism of the Premier’s 2022 Budget, and voiced his own concerns regarding the significant increases in the estimated amounts of tax-generated revenue for each year.
He noted that there is an estimated EC$29.6 million for July to December 2022, EC$77 million for the full year 2023, and EC$84.8 million for the full year 2024. He also noted that revenue generated from yearly taxes in previous years would have amounted to significantly less than is expected from just the 6 months of taxes for the year 2022.
Mrs. Richardson-Hodge observed that the dramatic increase in tax-generated revenue is possible due to the implementation of taxes on both goods and services as allowed under the GST.
She emphasised that under the previous AUF administration, the GST would have been implemented over a 3-year phased-in period of time, but was slated to be delayed due to the COVID pandemic. However, under the current APM administration, the GST is slated to be implemented in a few months, and “notwithstanding the fact that we are still suffering the effects of a global pandemic, it [leads] me to wonder, who is this government representing [with] the number of taxes being implemented?”
