Submitted by GoWeb Caribbean – (blog written by Caswell Franklyn)
Since the election in January 2008, I have refrained from criticising the DLP Government. As some have suggested, my silence had nothing to do with my becoming a member or supporter of the Dems. I have not. I wanted to give the new Government a chance to govern, without me as a distraction. I also felt then as I do now that the two alternate options offered by the BLP (Arthur and Mottley) were the worst possible choices to be prime minister, and I did not want my comments to be seen as giving aid and comfort to either of them.
While I do not want my criticisms to be of benefit to the current BLP leadership, I must object to some aspects of the 2010 Budget. I cannot understand the lack of informed opposition to the Budget. Either they remain on an extended honeymoon, or the country is convinced by the Government’s excuses for its failure to perform adequately by blaming their shortcomings on the global economic crisis.
The Minister of Finance has inflicted devastating tax increases that will hurt the poor and middle classes unnecessarily. Their apologists claim that those punitive tax increases are for the greater good. I have no difficulty if that were the case, but I remain unconvinced. If Government did not believe that it could get away with anything at this time, it would not increase the VAT rate now. Every effort should have been made to collect the millions that VAT registrants collected from the public and criminally put in their own pockets.
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