‘Outdated’: Nurse calls for end to foreign exchange fee

Independent Senator Lindell Nurse has urged the government to eliminate the 2.5 per cent foreign exchange fee, arguing that the economic conditions that warranted its introduction no longer exist.

Speaking in the Senate on Wednesday, Sen. Nurse noted that while the fee was necessary when foreign reserves were under pressure, Barbados has since recorded strong foreign exchange levels for the past few years.

He said: “I think the time has come for the removal of the two and a half per cent foreign exchange fee. It was introduced I know at a time when there was some pressure on the foreign reserves, therefore it was necessary. But I think over the past few years we have all been boasting year after year of the level of foreign exchange that we possess, and therefore it does not seem to be any longer an issue in terms of creating problems when we have to do our debt repayments.”

He noted that the fee, introduced by the Democratic Labour Party administration in 2017 to curb foreign currency spending on international goods and services, is now unnecessary given the financial stability that the current administration frequently highlights.

“I feel there could be a little ease; perhaps it is something that the government as they are now in the process of preparing the annual estimates of revenue and of course subsequent to that you would have the budget, that the Minister of Finance could consider some little ease. Certainly, we have heard that the government is making a surplus, so there are things that there could be some little give back at this time,” he said.