Atherley on Budget: ‘Should have been done sooner’

By Fernella Wedderburn

Some of the measures outlined in last week’s Budget are necessary but should have been addressed six years ago, a former leader of the opposition has said.

“A lot of those things, whether it’s police, teachers, nurses, whether its tax credits associated with the elderly services, these things are important,” said Bishop Joseph Atherley.

“Those . . . are things which are necessary and should have been addressed before, should not now be at the stage of the announcement. We should well have been into implementing, executing and actualising. I’m glad to hear them [but] these are things that could have been said and done ever since said it shouldn’t have taken the government six years to have reached that stage.”

Atherley, who in June 2019 crossed the floor of the House to become Leader of the Opposition before losing his seat in the 2022 general election, told Barbados TODAY there were several aspects of the Budget presented by Prime Minister Mia Mottley last Monday that he thought were “worthy of the focus of the country”.

He pointed to the country’s debt, saying that while “we have a reported debt-to-GDP ratio which is declining” he was concerned, “as I’m sure many Barbadians are” about the country’s foreign exchange earning capacity.

“Under the DLP (Democratic Labour Party), you had, what – a $18 billion debt level. Now, we must remember that did not happen overnight . . . it took some time and a certain trajectory to get us there. If we continue to borrow, this is my concern — with the commensurate levels of growth, we will find ourselves back there, especially after we are no longer under the strictures of an IMF (International Monetary Fund) programme,” Atherley said.

He explained the government had been able to borrow money at concessional rates because of the IMF programme.

The former MP said: “When we come out of that programme, and hopefully we will soon, then we are back to where we need to go to the commercial markets, national commercial markets for loans, and if we do that and we are not in a position to generate significant levels of foreign exchange revenue and therefore have growth in the economy, then we are likely to find ourselves back on a trajectory to where we once were and where we have come from. So, I do still have some concerns about the debt levels in Barbados.”

Declaring that he was glad to hear the government was making a move to modernise the commercial and regulatory culture around land transactions and mortgage access, Atherley maintained that this must be a “priority in every sense”.

“I think it is highly important what the PM said – that we need to address the impediments to doing business in Barbados. That is certainly welcome,” he added, though expressing concern about the “implementation deficit or the failure to implement syndrome that we are accustomed to”. 

“So often, things are announced and the policy may be sound, the intention may be genuine, but then nothing happens. The whole business of implementation deficit is still very much a problem in our attempts to give effect to policy.”

Saying that Mottley’s announcement there would be no new taxes was expected, he added that while that was welcome, “the fact is we are now being warned that there would be adjustments to some rates and that will come later”. 

“Now, I do not know why it could not have come at the same time that the budgetary statement was being made, even if the timing was not right. Certainly, there could have been an attempt to alert Barbados exactly what you’re talking about and the dates for such could have been advanced as well as would be coming later,” Atherley contended. 

fernellawedderburn@barbadostoday.bb