Submitted by Old Onion Bags
Chris Sinckler, Minister of Finance
Chris Sinckler, Minister of Finance

How many of you had any extra money to spend on gifts this Christmas? I bet most of you  (if honest like me) would agree, ‘tings were tight, tight. Over taxation, high food and gasoline prices had people ‘pun lock.’

How much longer can we continue this way though? Better believe me when I say Bajans are overly TAXED nowadays. People all over Barbados need some reprieve Mr. Sinclair (not more taxes as you have hinted). How much longer can they take these draconian measures and not fall through the social net? They need relief and they need it like yesterday. A voice hollering in the wilderness….dun know.

What is the sense of being able to boast of cutting the deficit by a mere 6% and the country’s people are suffering like hell? Jobs a thing of the past, who working, doing  so with fear shivering, peoples’ children who worked hard to achieve  university status, now left with a broken dreams, ( EWB recently emptied promise).

Mr. Sinclair, you are on video boasting in Parliament of the tough times our generation has been through and of how it makes for character. Yes sir Mr. Minister we agree, but are you not forgetting… back in those days you could beg for a breadfruit….a turnover was for 5c….you could eat food at the neighbors’ and\or  find a job if you wanted one. Times have changed sir … they have obviously become harder. What WAS in those days, won’t cut it today.

By taking so much money out of the economy in the forms of increased taxation and surcharge on fuel,   the money supply has decreased.  The money multiplier effect has thereby waned as a result, and there are less dollars to be circulated and personal savings are being withdrawn from the banks. For those so interested….. money creation is the process by which the money supply of a country  is changed. There are two principal stages of money creation. First, a central bank introduces new money into the economy termed expansionary monetary policy…. by purchasing financial assets or lending money to financial institutions. Secondly, the new money introduced by the central bank is multiplied by commercial banks through fractional reserve banking; this expands the amount of broad money (i.e. cash plus demand deposits) in the economy so that it is a multiple (known as the money multiplier) of the amount originally created by the central bank.

Mr.Sinckler,  with this government’s so called mid-term fiscal policy, you all have successfully choked up the country’s monetary plumbing real good. Disposable income has dried up and money is no longer flowing down. The system needs an enema, and real fast….to releases some frustrations and anxieties the hard working and unemployed people are left to bear.

With this administration having just another two years, how many more taxes  do you plan to implement? A new on-coming cell phone tax promised of 22% in 2016,  one wonders what next… a bedroom tax maybe?

88 responses to “Bajans Overly Taxed and NOT Loving It!”


  1. @AC that IFM prediction for growth in the tourist industry may not materialize this season. To date the winter on the East Coast of the US is extermely mild.

    @Hal Austin 35 new taxes were introduced my the DLP. In my opinion the majority of Barbadians are over taxed. Over taxation is a symptom of the real problem which is political mismanagement.


  2. Continued: In comparison to the DLP manifesto the BLP manifesto was simply not bold enough. Read this here:

    “Increase the land tax exemption thresh to $200,000”.

    $400,000 and they would have won the election.

    On page 56 the BLP also admits that a new hospital can´t be built immediately.

    Less realism and they would have won the election.


  3. AFTER the big nosed ugly idiot DISMISSED Moody’s and the IMF’s downgrades and reports as “what they say has as much value as what you would see in any garbage dump collected by the Sanitation Services Authority.”

    Take it easy Arta – Do not let Ac make you raise your blood pressure with the New year on the horizon. Ac i believe tries to play devil’s advocate because he/ she can’t be stupidly ignorant of the facts all the time.


  4. What ac cited in the IMF report was the facts unless the IMF is as “stupidly ignorant as ac and also playing devil.s advocate .


  5. What is puzzling to many is how can oil price drop almost 30% in the year and we have not seen close to the same movement in Barbados. It is obvious the government has been diverting the benefit of the drop to shore up other areas. BU would have no problem with this approach if we were seeing an equally aggressive alternative energy strategy.


  6. @ AC the IMF report is a prediction. The act of God or climate change that has resulted in an extremely mild winter compared to last year is a fact that will in some way affect tourist arrivals

  7. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ David December 31, 2015 at 7:01 AM
    “What is puzzling to many is how can oil price drop almost 30% in the year and we have not seen close to the same movement in Barbados. It is obvious the government has been diverting the benefit of the drop to shore up other areas. BU would have no problem with this approach if we were seeing an equally aggressive alternative energy strategy..”

    A rather insightful remark there, David (BU).
    But the current administration is caught between an alternative energy policy rock and a very hard fiscal place.
    The forex savings from lower oil prices have been an economic lifebuoy. How else would the government be able to pay its overseas bills while trying to maintain its ‘champagne taste and mauby pocket’ presence at too many international talk-shops and “nato” fora.

    Any major moves to make alternative energy financially more attractive than fossil-based energy generation would make both the sale of the BNTCL and the proposed merger of the BNOCL and NPC for future privatization a most unattractive investment decision. Unless SOL or some other business vulture is prepared to take them off the Government’s hand for a song or at scrap value.

    What about the now 100% foreign-owned fossil-fuel electricity generation plant at the Spring Garden? Would the government be prepared to subsidize its owners for its future underutilization and the company’s inability to recover its full fixed costs in a ‘shortened’ payback period (that is, capital charges including an inflated ROI from its recent acquisitions)?

    We will not even mention the much talked about offshore drilling programme for overly heavy hydrocarbons in a country already suffering from dying coral reefs and almost totally dependent on a fickle industry called tourism.


  8. @Simple Simon 11.18p
    I take your word that the person with whom I had a conversation on a matter concerning my water supply is a scholar,a gentleman and not Ghanian.The person with whom I spoke was a perfect pig,lacking in manners and of a culture alien to barbadiana,therefore we are not speaking of the same individual.My sincere apologies to you.


  9. The issue of unclean community water tanks is troubling. Minister Estwick, over to you.


  10. @Heather correct ‘ predicated on influences those infuences which the blp charged had no influence irimpact on the barbados economy and which were major factors in the influence of down grades
    However now these factors have emerged and been a source of buoyancy and elevation for economic movement the blp instigators are standing on the front line to dismiss


  11. @David expect the fast tracking of desalination plants.

    It is the logical solution to water shortage problem.

    You can’t risk waiting for rain to fall. These drought conditions may be a yearly problem.


  12. @Hants

    This is exactly what the acting GM is quoted in this week’s news, using brackish water etc. It appears yours is the direction they are going.

  13. Retribution-things that make me go hum! Avatar
    Retribution-things that make me go hum!

    @ac, Do you live here?


  14. @retribution none of your business… hmmm the blp bridage is now caught like a deer steering in the higlights with the economy moving foward and there party in disarray.
    Four years ago the instigators had predicted a total collapse of barbados economy but such occurence has not happened .Presently the only collapse about to happen is steeering the blp instigators in the face tightly wrapped with doom and signed by gloom having negative indicators pointing directly in the direction of the blp party

  15. NorthernObserver Avatar

    Moot points. When was the last time the IMF forecasts were even close to accurate? They massage as the year goes along. Like the budgets of most MofF’s anywhere, they are usually wrong, and in favour of less revenue and greater expenses. Debt is a bitch, like cancer it just eats into anything good.
    The income tax system is on life support; too many ways to avoid, and every government desperate for revenue are clammering and competing for anything they can get. Consumption taxes are the new focus. If only because they are more collectible. User fees a natural target. As are levies on asset bases versus income bases.
    Happy New Year…it will be an interesting one across the Globe. I predict it will be the International Year of the Default.

  16. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ David December 31, 2015 at 10:52 AM #
    “This is exactly what the acting GM is quoted in this week’s news, using brackish water etc. It appears yours is the direction they are going.”

    David, what the same acting G M spoke about was known long time ago. it was long ago projected that the rate of consumption of potable water far exceeded the rate of replenishing the aquifers. This situation was made worse over the recent years by the careless failure to institute or maintain (as of former days of commonsense) effective rain water catchment methods to reduce the amount of surface water going straight into the sea.

    What effects do you think the filling-in of ponds and other natural water-retention features, concreting and paving of former grassy areas and the stark and stupid removal of hedgerows of khus khus grass from around the former arable fields of sugar cane would have on the state of the aquifers?

    Barbados has now met its Waterloo, both figuratively and literally.

    The question to the Minister: Where has the 60% increase in water rates gone? Down Maxwell pond?
    Why not invite a foreign investor or enter into a PPP arrangement with a local consortium to build another desalination plant to help the people in need of this most vital resource? Given the government’s drive towards alternative energy there certainly will not be a shortage electricity from the WTE plant or from solar energy farms to ‘fuel’ such a much needed additional desalination plant.

    The existence of potable underground water was the reason why Barbados was ‘settled’ by the English on a permanent basis giving rise to its former “superior” infrastructure compared to the other territories. Don’t let the shortage of potable water be its tourism demise.
    Piles of unsightly garbage, poor treated sewage and lack of clean water make a deadly cocktail mix for socio-economic disaster. Let’s not mention the “C” word, here.


  17. @Miller

    We need to stop the 60% leaks in the mains, we need to reduce operating cost by aggressively implementing renewable energy supply; the BWA is BL&P’s biggest customer.

    On 31 December 2015 at 19:54, Barbados Underground wrote:

    >


  18. I wonder if all of this BWA brouhaha,was simply in order to pave the way for a desal plant,which I am still not convinced that we need once we practise what Miller has supported me on.


  19. Miller is right. We have known of these problems and did not do enough to solve them.

    David wrote “We need to stop the 60% leaks in the mains,”

    Yes but that is difficult and will take a long time. Note that “New pipes” increase the pressure in the existing pipes so more leaks are created since all the old pipes are not replaced simultaneously.


  20. @ Vincent Haynes there is now an emergency and something must be done.

    Wunna could bring some Indians to do a rain dance but that may not work.


  21. While the govt was busy finding solutions Mia was busy telling the whole world how bad it was for people to invest in Barbados
    Here are some snippets of her glorious sound bites to frighten and scare away

    “We have reached a point where every week matters,” Mia Mottley, the leader of the opposition Barbados Labour party (BLP), thundered at a rally in the capital of Bridgetown on Sunday. “We are not yet at rock bottom, but we are fast approaching that point.” whi;le calling for Sinckler head to be handed over on a plate in Parliament


  22. Four years ago the daunting task of stabilizing the economy seemed a fruitless task for govt giving the negative mitigating factors
    here are some of the conclusions made by the IMF

    “Downside risks are significant, and strong and prompt adjustment is crucial,” the Washington-based lender said. “The authorities face the challenging task of raising foreign reserves and reducing the fiscal deficit in an environment of low growth, high debt and a fixed exchange rate.”

    the govt has stayed focus amidst the dissent of the doom and gloomers and barbados has started to see a glimmer of light after being in the dark for four years


  23. @Miller
    What effects do you think the filling-in of ponds and other natural water-retention features, concreting and paving of former grassy areas and the stark and stupid removal of hedgerows of khus khus grass from around the former arable fields of sugar cane would have on the state of the aquifers?
    +++++++++++
    So it was the height of folly for a Gov’t to propose the paving over of Graeme Hall Swamp to erect a “Waterpark” for the benefit of tourists?

  24. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Sargeant December 31, 2015 at 6:46 PM

    If only you knew the vital role the same Swamp plays in the natural eco system- both onshore and offshore (coral reefs)- you will certainly know the answer to your own question. Same thing applies to the remaining mangrove-type outlets to the sea.
    Nature is not fool. Frig with Her at your own peril. Time longer than twine.

    What do you think is going on with the ‘dumping’ of hundreds of thousands of litres of bleach and other chemicals (both household and industrial) into the island’s fragile limestone underground? Same thing applies to the thousands of kilos of plastic ending up in the underground cisterns and offshore trapped in the coral reefs.

    Ten to 20 more years and the full effects will be seen especially on the West Coast.
    Fortunately, the modern tourist is certainly more environmentally aware and committed to Nature’s plans than the stupid Bajans bent on the destruction of their own habitat and capacity to survive what is in store for small islands like Bim.


  25. “Drivers who pass schools on their daily routes will have to pay more attention when students go back to class. Under new rules, drivers who encounter crosswalks with crossing guards or flashing overhead lights must wait until pedestrians make it all the way across the street before proceeding.”


  26. Those residents of the areas affected by the shortage of potable water should install a water tank without delay.Seeing that the African scholar and gentleman has made it clear he does not have the wherewithal to bring relief to so many hundreds of households in St Lucy,St Andrew,St Joseph and St Thomas and neither does the octogenarian executive chairman( read an 81 year old pensioner and member of the fatted calf brigade preventing a younger and less tired Bajan earning a decent salary)and when you consider that the Minister with line responsibility for Water Supply and Management is dumb or otherwise silent and ineffective and the the Prime Minister cannot be bothered to speak to the long suffering residents of the affected parishes,then it is time for these citizens to show their disgust in a tangible way and organize a mass protest next Wedneday January 6th when this government launches its 50th anniversary event.


  27. Neither party has offered any real solutions when you think about it. The business sectors lobbying has prevented foreign investment. Gas in the states is $1.50 a gal or 37.5 cents a liter. You can get a to go box(2 pc chicken, roll, mashed potato’s, cookie, and large coke) at KFC in the states for $5.00 US or $10 BBD. Double that in Barbados. The duties at the port/airport are unreasonable, and merchants couldn’t get there goods for a week because of transportation problems. Land taxes aren’t being paid, some water service was received free for 2 yrs, and a dumping fee was instituted, along with a 22% VAT on data usage and you wonder why drugs are being smuggled in, people are being robbed, and they’re dumping garbage all over the island. We have, and have had a bunch of idiots in government elected, or otherwise for years. But, if you look around you can tell the ones living high on the hog. Bring in some competition that will offer better prices, and employ more people. You don’t need any incentives then to make it a level playing field. Agin the business lobby, and import duties are only making the rich, richer……………..


  28. @racehrse
    For the record, I think your US prices are on the low side (at least – not applicable to NJ)

  29. Well Well & Consequences2 Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences2

    If they do the commonsense as racehrse proposes, then in their minds, the politicians and others will have to not only cut down on their bribe intake, but a cross section of the taxpayers will also start benefitting financially without having to become yardfowls and enablers.

    The politicians would see this as not being in their own best self-interest. You are dealing with leaders in the lowest sense of the word, who lack morals and any degree of ethics.


  30. @TheGazer

    Check http://www.gasbuddy.com They track the price at the pump by City, State, or Zip code and even give you what stations offer the best price. If you minimize the national map it shows color coded prices across the country. $1.40 to $2.60 a gal.


  31. “ac December 30, 2015 at 8:21 PM #

    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is projecting positive GDP growth for Barbados this year as a result of increased tourism arrivals and accelerated growth in key markets.”

    Don’t you think that after seven years of incompetence that it is time a miracle occur.


  32. Question:

    If the world economy determines how good or bad our economy is how come when it is bad it’s the world economy’s fault and when things appear to be getting better it is the government’s policies that must be applauded?


  33. We have not had a leader with vision in a very long time. It is more than our water reservoirs that are running on empty.


  34. If I were a person living outside of Barbados I would not spend good money to come to this filthy place. What tourism product what!

    On New Year’s Day my garbage was finally collected after an extended period. The guys said they were as usual borrowing a truck which kept breaking down. My neighborhood was a mess. Those guys were working like madmen to get the place clean. If Lowe worked as hard and as conscientiously we wouldn’t be the rat’s nest we are.


  35. Donna January 4, 2016 at 10:56 AM #

    “Question: If the world economy determines how good or bad our economy is how come when it is bad it’s the world economy’s fault and when things appear to be getting better it is the government’s policies that must be applauded?”

    You have raised a very interesting point, which contains “TRUTH” and “FACTS,” two “elements” some yard-fowls are always alluding to.


  36. Donville Inniss is one of the guest on today’s edition of “Brass Tacks,” which is focusing on a review of business in 2015.

  37. Better believe it Avatar
    Better believe it

    I hear $1.5 million of the TAXPAYER’s monies being spent tonight, on this 50th Ann. indep. Celebration…$250,000 fireworks even. How could such be spent on this kind of nonsense and Bajans struggling? Some could not even afford a HAM this Christmas, far-less pay taxes still owed and outstanding? Yet this administration blowing up money like Guy Falkes and it aint even November or Old Years. The real cost to the country however, is the business and structural adjustments to be made starting mid-day. Retailer Massy wisely has closed its Btown businesses from 2.30 pm to avert losses whilst many others are seemingly following suit…


  38. Will Flow follow.

    TELECOMMUNICATIONS PROVIDER DIGICEL has saved local mobile phone users some serious dollars.

    See more at: http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/76414/digicel-absorbs-cell-tax#sthash.PHLY1lv1.dpuf

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