#BTColumn – Barbados deserves much better

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.

by Paula Sealy

Nurses could not get paid for years. They went on strike and their pay was docked. Teachers still have difficulties receiving the correct pay, allowances and increments.

A lack of maintenance causes public buildings to become sick buildings and contributes to work-related illnesses in public officers. When their doctors grant them sick leave they are viewed as unproductive.

Public officers deserve better.

In the new Cabinet, there is a Deputy PM and four Senior Ministers earning higher handsome salaries and allowances, which will also result in higher pension for athose five. They will always get their money on time.

As of April 1, in order to qualify for a full pension new public officers will be required to work for 40 years while the age of mandatory retirement remains 67. Start working in the public service after 27 and it is a reduced pension automatically.

However, our honourable MPs are set to receive far earlier pensions after two terms in Parliament. The present government has no interest in providing any relief from the twin pressure of a runaway cost of living and merciless VAT.

(As the Opposition of the day, they railed against the permanence of the “18-month” increase in the rate of VAT from 15 per cent to 17.5 per cent – introduced in December 2010 under the Stuart administration – after the temporary 17.5 per cent rate was subject to an “indefinite extension” in June 2012.)

It has introduced an additional tax as a “COVID Contribution Levy” for companies and individuals – a motley variation of the 31-month-old DLP’s “Consolidation Tax”.

Instead of being a broad-based tax, the Levy targets higher-income earners and enterprises. Should its effects include less spending and a reduction in manufacturing the government stands to collect less excise taxes and VAT, and PAYE should job losses occur, along with more severance payments from NIS.

In 2015, the DLP introduced the ‘sweet drink tax’ as a 10 per cent excise tax levied on the value of sweetened beverages before VAT was applied. It was doubled in the Budget last month.

The BLP Opposition objected to the NSLR especially after it was increased from 2 per cent to 10 per cent and labelled it as a regressive fiscal measure.

The NSRL was repealed in July 2018 but the overbite of VAT has been a handicap since December 2010. Barbadians must demand better from their political leaders. Taxation without representation cannot be tolerated.

Despite protesting the removal of contributions to registered retirement saving plans from among the deductibles for income tax filings, as the Opposition, that measure remains intact today all the same.

The two major political parties in Barbados are bereft of the ideas, energy and organisational innovation needed to forge a sustainable economy within a progressive, developing society. Their limitations have been exposed over the last 25 years with the cycle of recessions occurring more frequently.

Our political leaders have sought to re-commit to tourism, going back to the 1950s, despite its volatility and the diminishing returns to scale. We have seen tourism fall flat on its face due to COVID.

Taxi men, entertainers, hired car businesses, food vendors, construction workers, retailers and hoteliers have struggled over the past two years.

The government will take pleasure in reporting growth when the economic engines begin purring again.

The old boys’ stable lacks vigour. Their heirs lack vision and conviction. They are paying lip service to economic diversification instead of seeking to add value to agriculture by promoting food sovereignty, to sports by increasing health, wellness and employment, and culture by celebrating our identity, registering and monetising intellectual property, and earning foreign exchange while integrating STEAM to accelerate growth and development.

The political and administrative sandboxes in which Barrow and Adams invested need repairs, as outdated and ‘pop-down’ as are the public buildings that their successors have allowed to run to ruin.

The Honourable are no longer noble in their purpose or venerable in character. Any Government of Barbados needs to exercise better judgement in the management of the country’s affairs.

Barbados deserves better.

This column was offered as a Letter to the Editor.