Straughn pleased with BOSS performance

Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn is upbeat that the Barbados Optional Savings Scheme (BOSS) will continue to gain momentum.

However, he said officials were expecting periodic peaks and troughs as participants of the programme seek financial wiggle room to carry out various activities.

“The subscriptions are still where we anticipate they would be, but as you would appreciate, as we get deeper in terms of the pandemic, and persons having to support family members, then people make decisions of how much of the BOSS programme, in terms of bonds, they will subscribe to,” Straughn told reporters on Friday.

“But all in all, we are satisfied that as many public servants who can, stuck to the initial allocations. Some have even increased their allocations with respect to the bonds, and that is encouraging, but we recognise that … the public servants who can’t afford to at this time, have an opportunity to take up the bonds over the next few months. But equally, ordinary Barbados are able to purchase those bonds from the said public servants and benefit from the return on those bonds.”

The 18-month scheme, which started in July, is aimed at raising $153 million to help with capital projects.

Public servants and pensioners have the option of obtaining the special bonds, which will attract five per cent interest. Bonds that are not taken up will be sold to residents by the Central Bank.

Straughn said whether the bonds were taken up by public servants or other residents, “we will achieve the targets”.

Encouraging people to continue taking up the bonds, he added: “It is useful if you can increase your allocation because it helps the Government save cash in the short term that we can redeploy to some of the capital works. The more that people subscribe, the more space the Government gets to do the capital works.”

Straughn said a dip in subscription was expected for the back-to-school period, given that people needed to make provisions for their children.

The economist said it was also anticipated that the subscription at the end of the year could dip due to people doing Christmas shopping.

“I will anticipate that things will settle down. But maybe Christmas people will make a decision [to reduce their subscription] because they want to do a little something for their family, because it has been a long year and things have been stressful. So they may reduce their subscription for the December run so they could get as much as their salary as possible, so those are the things we would expect. But all in all, we are satisfied with the performance,” said Straughn.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb