Support for ‘timely’ measures

Noted academic Professor Don Marshall says the relief measures the Mia Amor Mottley administration is implementing to help Barbados weather the rapidly rising cost of living, is an indication that Government is willing to respond to the adverse circumstances the country is facing.

The Director of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES), at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus, said the fallout from the Russia/Ukraine War has led to a situation where the six months Prime Minister Mottley has earmarked for targeted relief is an appropriate time frame.

“It gives the Government about three months before the end of the financial year to then look at the impact on social expenditure. But a government before had put forward the idea of free camps.

“I see nothing wrong with this Government determining that the school meals service can be employed to serve those school-aged students who might otherwise be engaged in meaningful activities during the summer and their parents will know that there is no need to worry about a nutritious meal at the end of it all,” Professor Marshall told members of the media at the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) George Street Auditorium, Belleville, St Michael, where he delivered the Astor B Watts Lunchtime Lecture.

Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley on Thursday announced an $18 million package to bring much-needed ease to consumers.

Mottley said the relief measures include a slash in the Value Added Tax (VAT) on certain essential items from as early as next week, and an additional 44 food and household items being added to the VAT-free list. Custom duties have also been removed from certain items to pave the way for reduced prices to consumers, beginning Thursday July 21 and ending January 31, 2023.

Prime Minister Mottley also announced that school-aged children will receive school meals during the summer break in order to give parents a further ease on their supermarket bill.

“I suspect that the 40 odd items might include feminine products and other products that were earlier earmarked for either reduction impact, or zero ratings. But however you read the set of measures, I think it was timely. And I was listening out for some kind of ease on the fuel tax even if they remove the VAT, or the excise tax be held or something. But I believe framers within the Ministry of Finance would be looking at ways to recover that Solid Waste Tax, if they remove it in any other form,” he said.

Professor Marshall added that notwithstanding that there is still a pandemic, the war has put to bed any idea of any optimistic world economic rebounding in the near future.