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Deficit Committee of the Social Partnership Recommends Entering an IMF Program Supported by Aggressive Privatization and Rationalization of SOEs

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Given the comatose state the Barbados economy continues to be gripped, let us continue our steely focus on the economy although this task will be made difficult with the Crop Over season firing up.   It is important to add that a deteriorating economic landscape will continue to have a deleterious effect on the social well being of our nation. The perception index of the state of crime and poverty for example is on the rise. Despite our level of academic achievement as a country- of which we frequently boast- as a people we appear to lack the acumen to dispassionately discuss serious issues without invoking political rhetoric (bile) -a  contradiction.

Yesterday Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler was strident in his public admonition of Barbadians. He is of the view nobody has offered reasonable alternatives (BU hesitates to use the word solutions) and the government policy prescription is the more palatable of those available.

Here is a copy of the Deficit Committee of the Social Partnership that was presented to the Government six weeks before the Financial Statement Budgetary proposals now made public. BU will reserve comment on the document except to suggest to effectively remediate a problem (s) the underlying or causal factors must be addressed. To be fair to the Deficit Committee it would have been constrained by the brief it received.

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101 responses to “Deficit Committee of the Social Partnership Recommends Entering an IMF Program Supported by Aggressive Privatization and Rationalization of SOEs”

  1. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    I don’t think that the Social Partnership fiscal deficit proposals are a panacea, but there is some clear headed analysis here and useful policy proposals.

    The recommendation to “Set a single lower VAT rate across the board with no exemptions, concessions or zero ratings for any industry or sector” then relying on the “use of reverse tax credits and pension supplements” to give “targeted relief to the poor and vulnerable” would be a major improvement to our tax system.

  2. David Avatar
    David

    @Peter

    There is evidence that our bureaucracy does not allow for the efficient processing of reverse credits which defeats the purpose if we are to protect the vulnerable in our society. What impact/sensitivity analysis would have been done to support your position of a flat implementation of the VAT sector wide? We wouldn’t want to slit the throat of the goose laying the golden egg would we.

  3. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Peter,
    VAT is a tax on the poor. It is a consumption tax and the poor spend a higher proportion of their income on basics; the well off save/invest a higher proportion of theirs.

  4. Bajan Free Party/CUP/.Violet Beckles Plantation Deeds from 1926-2017 land tax bills and no Deeds,BLPand DLP Massive land Fruad and PONZI Avatar
    Bajan Free Party/CUP/.Violet Beckles Plantation Deeds from 1926-2017 land tax bills and no Deeds,BLPand DLP Massive land Fruad and PONZI

    VAT is the fraud that is 17.5% Must be removed one time, VAT for UDC and for public housing which was to be temporary which is Owen and Mia Lie moving people from land rent to land tax.The government is still today collecting land rent that is a reflection as rent on a land tax bill.Which the government does not own. Depriving the owners of their land rent, Now acting like it was part of taxation.The land renters by way of DBLP land tax bills do not have a Clear title deed nor a deed at all, Onl thing they can show is a land tax fraud bill issued by Land Tax DBLP illegally=More Fraud and land fraud on a Massive Level.

    We can not manage fraud nor Ponzi it must be removed, Doctors managing cancer until all your money is gone then they let you die,
    To much long talk by Bajans with so-called PhDs in fraud talk.
    Barbardos must have an understanding on how things work!

  5. Frustrated Businessman: enact Facilitation Martial Law! Avatar
    Frustrated Businessman: enact Facilitation Martial Law!

    Hal Austin June 16, 2017 at 6:43 AM #
    Peter,
    VAT is a tax on the poor. It is a consumption tax and the poor spend a higher proportion of their income on basics; the well off save/invest a higher proportion of theirs.

    And then do what with it?

    Where does wealth go when it is ‘created’?

    Are there species of animals on this planet that eat and survive on money?

    This point continues to be missed by ‘experts’. The reason we know who the rich people are in this country (not the teefin’ politicians who have theirs squirrelled away in foreign countries for their post-election exodus) is because they SPEND IT. Money is no good to anyone if it isn’t buying something.

    Our cash pool in Bim is not created by wealthy people, it has been created by generations of working-class people who were taught by their conservative parents to conserve and save for a rainy day, not to borrow and not to live beyond their means. Not long from now that generation will be dead and their offspring will lick it out.

    But right now the cash sitting idle in our system belongs to those people. The ones who sold BS&T, Banks, Mutual etc. shares and were happy with 5% interest on deposit with Globe, Consolidated, Cave Shepherd etc., all of which have returned said deposits due to lack of commercial activity in this country.

    VAT is the only fair tax.

    I do not agree with the lowering of VAT. VAT should be raised and all other taxes abolished. Purchases made in BIM with ForEx should be VAT-free. You’d see how quick the true value of the BDS dollar would be realised.

  6. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @David
    We can’t just keep making excuses for the poor implementation of good ideas by a broken bureaucracy…. we need “Accelerated reforms at the BRA.”

  7. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @Hal
    Yes, all consumption taxes are regressive. It is the most efficient tax for raising revenue however, and the whole point of this exercise is to reduce the fiscal deficit.

  8. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    You guys must be deaf, dumb and blind.

    The Govt. has no intention of entering any standby arrangement with the IMF. Several times it has made this point and as recent as this year’s budget proposals. All with good reasons. So give up!!!!!!

    The Govt. has no intentions of rampant privatization, how many more time must it make this point before you BLP jokers get the drift?

    What you all need to high light is the fact that the Leader of your crooked Barbados Labour Party has to yet produce her LLB and Law certificate and make them a document of the House as challenge to do so by the Hon. Dr. Dennis Lowe.

    How can a person be a QC and no one has seen their LLB or Law certificate?

  9. David Avatar
    David

    Agree Peter but those of us who are aware of the dysfunctional BRA remains pessimistic.

  10. David Avatar
    David

    @cadogan

    Further comment to divert this topic will be deleted.

  11. Bajan Free Party/CUP/.Violet Beckles Plantation Deeds from 1926-2017 land tax bills and no Deeds,BLPand DLP Massive land Fruad and PONZI Avatar
    Bajan Free Party/CUP/.Violet Beckles Plantation Deeds from 1926-2017 land tax bills and no Deeds,BLPand DLP Massive land Fruad and PONZI

    We don’t need no IMF they already know all the VAT is fraud, We don’t need no DBLP government who bring this fraud call VAT. All taxes and VAT need to be paid by All,Ministers and lawyers also, then we may see where we stand, The PM just steps by his taxes and his VAT when he bought a car that is not for him. He needed to leave it on the lot,

    There you go again Daivd. No freedom of speeech on BU.

  12. Fractured BLP Avatar
    Fractured BLP

    David

    You two – legged crook !

    What has Carson done to divert attention with his comments ??

    Your putting up of this headline is a DELIBERATE attempt to divert attention from the crooked led Mia Mottley BLP

    You are the one that should be BANNED or DELETED for try to divert attention from the BLP crooks !!

    The BLP and their charlatans says the country need to the IMF

    The Dems says no way …… rational thinking Bajans ( excluding you and the other miscreants parading around ) FULLY agree .

    What is your beef ????

    For most of the past 9 years , you promoted stories after stories that Barbados :

    Economy gine crash

    Nobody investing in Barbados

    The public service gine collapse

    No more cruise ships coming to Barbados

    No tourists gine come here

    From the above – which of your INFAMOUS predictions have come to pass ?????

    David of BU…………….You are just an UNPATRIOTIC BLIGHT !!!!!!!

    You want something to ban……..ban the truth as outlined above !!!!!

  13. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @Frustrated Businessman
    The 10% NSRL is a consumption tax like the 17.5% VAT. So now we have in excess of 27.5% (because sometimes the two are compounded) of consumption taxes. Does that satisfy your yearning for higher consumption taxes, or should they be higher still?

  14. David Avatar
    David

    @Peter and Frustrated Businessman

    There is a danger in the discussion going circular here if you accept the tax incidence argument and juxtapose it with government’s untenable position of trying to address the deficit now that the NIS and Central Bank directorate do not have the appetite to be government’s ATM any longer. In other words your positions must recognize the political imperitive for government with an election less then one year out. The sad reality is that this Government has not demonstrated the leadership to infuse confidence in all sectors to leed in a tough time. Our current state is the result.

    #letuspray

  15. Frustrated Businessman: enact Facilitation Martial Law! Avatar
    Frustrated Businessman: enact Facilitation Martial Law!

    @Frustrated Businessman
    The 10% NSRL is a consumption tax like the 17.5% VAT. So now we have in excess of 27.5% (because sometimes the two are compounded) of consumption taxes. Does that satisfy your yearning for higher consumption taxes, or should they be higher still?

    No it isn’t. It is another tax extorted at the port of entry that, not only compounds the others, but adds to carrying costs.

    VAT, when executed by an efficient system, is genius. VAT paid at the port of entry is credited against VAT collected at the point of sale. The business owner does the maths, sends a cheque. That means that, if it was our ONLY tax, inventory carrying costs would be CIF only. That frees up cash to employ people, advertise, pay rent, expand business activity.

    Import duties, levies, NSRL and all the other shit bureaucrats dream up, all add to carrying costs. In the case of a car, out of every $100 dealers budget to put a car on the lot, $30 goes to the manufacturer including shipping and $70 is spent here and held in inventory until sale. Daed money, wasted resource. Other ‘luxury’ goods are similar.

    Sales tax is the only fair tax. If you consume you pay. If you do not consume, your money sits in banks, investment funds and on deposit in businesses for other people to use and they pay. VAT cannot be escaped, somewhere along the stream it has to be paid.

    And your comment about compounding does not speak to my point: I clearly stated that VAT should replace ALL taxes.

  16. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @David asked “What impact/sensitivity analysis would have been done to support your position of a flat implementation of the VAT sector wide?”

    That work has already been done because when VAT was designed to replace the myriad excise & sales taxes the objective was for it to be low in rate and universally applied. The sector exemptions were always just political game playing.

    It’s quite easy to model the impact of eliminating exemptions and zero ratings because they have changed over the years and we have data on the effect of those changes.

  17. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @Frustrated Businessman
    I agree with your criticism of the NSRL, but the fact remains that it is a consumption tax.

    I also agree with you that VAT is a very efficient way for the government to raise revenue provided that it is not complicated by bureaucratic exemptions dreamed up by politicians.

    However VAT is very regressive: it is disproportionately hard on poor people. You are OK with that; I am not OK with that. It’s just a difference in our value systems. If we rely on VAT for all government revenue then I argue that we need a very efficient way of direct transfers to the poor to provide relief from their disproportionate share of the tax burden.

  18. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @David
    As long as political imperatives take precedence over economic management then we are F#@*ked economically. The DLP regime squandered a chance to use the Social Partnership for political cover and pursue sound economic management. The budget is not going to win them any political points, but it is economic stupidity, so they lose on both counts.

  19. Bernard Codrington. Avatar
    Bernard Codrington.

    @ David

    Good topic again. Is the isolated table the only attachment?

    Why is the BOP surplus fixed at $136 million over the projected period?
    Are the scheduled debt payments for external debts only?
    If they are not why are local debts a charge on the net foreign exchange earned?

    Why are they ballooning in 2021 and 2022? Doubling that of the previous years’ average?

    I hope you now understand my conclusion that the finances and economy have not been properly managed since Mr Arthur demitted office. That is If the table attached is correct’.

    VAT is a regressive tax and will impact the lower income more heavily than the higher income groups. That contributes to the inequality of income and may hasten the period of social unrest which some people in this country want to have. Raising the level of the expenditure tax is therefore a no- brainer.

    I believe this Committee recommended a reduction in the rate of the VAT. How could that have been translated to adding another level of expenditure tax? .

    Yes , Lawrence T. The remit given the Committee was constrained to fixing a symptom not the disease and they did that without seeing that the reaction to the medicine may cause cardiac arrest.

    Carry on smartly.

  20. Bernard Codrington. Avatar
    Bernard Codrington.

    @ Frustrated at 8:23 AM

    All good points.

  21. angela Skeete Avatar
    angela Skeete

    Amm here sitting in the gallery watching the blp yardfowl brigade march by.
    These bunch of clowns led by the Fraud must have a death wish for Barbados most of them would run for the high hills when the tsunami truckload of IMF proposals hit the shores leaving the most vulnerable to be washed out by the roaring seas
    Mottley knows her charcacter has received a beating in recent weeks and has resorted to being a spokesperson for Annankani and his crew .What a loser.
    What alternatives the blp has none

  22. David Avatar
    David

    @Bernar:d

    The table was snipped from the document that is linked in the blog.

    Those are some ‘big mout’ observations will have to wait for the BU intelligentsia to respond.

  23. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    “@ David June 16, 2017 at 7:38 AM #
    @cadogan

    Further comment to divert this topic will be deleted.”

    This is proposterous to say the least ! I once questioned why some of us were introducing other topics in a discussion and you, David replied that contributors can do as they please. Now because you introduced a relatively repetitive topic , you are using different standards.
    I recently said that I don’t like anybody who is judge , jury and executioner-this proves my point. You, who always talk about transparency and the intransigence of the political class but you are acting exactly like them.
    The die has been cast; the government is not going to the IMF at this time. The private sector’s recommendations have been rejected. So why this highhanded nonsense.
    As always: Please note that I am not agreeing or defending the BLPDLP. Thanks.

  24. Frustrated Businessman: enact Facilitation Martial Law! Avatar
    Frustrated Businessman: enact Facilitation Martial Law!

    peterlawrencethompson June 16, 2017 at 8:41 AM #
    @Frustrated Businessman

    However VAT is very regressive: it is disproportionately hard on poor people. You are OK with that; I am not OK with that. It’s just a difference in our value systems. If we rely on VAT for all government revenue then I argue that we need a very efficient way of direct transfers to the poor to provide relief from their disproportionate share of the tax burden.

    Think harder Peter.

    I do not agree with your statement about the poor being adversely affected by high VAT and you do not understand the costs that are being carried by businesses due to all the other taxes and how those are already being passed on to poor people, above what any high VAT rate would cost them.

    Since business cannot be explained to any bureaucrat, I submit this for the sake of moving forward:

    If, as you say, the poor are adversely affected by high VAT on food, clothing and power, how about a 10% VAT on them and a 25% VAT on everything else like the cel phones, sneakers and kadooment parties?

    One of the first things Chastanet did after his election win was to hire private sector professionals to advise him. Our idiots are still bumbling aimlessly.

  25. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Frustrated Businessman: enact Facilitation Martial Law!June 16, 2017 at 6:56 AM
    “VAT is the only fair tax.
    I do not agree with the lowering of VAT. VAT should be raised and all other taxes abolished. Purchases made in BIM with ForEx should be VAT-free. You’d see how quick the true value of the BDS dollar would be realised.”

    How can VAT be the “only fair tax”? VAT, by its nature, is regressive unless you are going to exempt or zero-rate the items included in a daily hamper of survival for the poor and indigent.

    I can support you in a view that VAT should be reformed and expanded to replace personal income tax.

    But it still would not generate sufficient tax revenues to finance a modern and sophisticated public sector providing a range of social services, including defence and security.

    In addition to the VAT taxes and levies on property should be the main tax generators for a country whose economy is primarily based on the transactional importation and selling.

    Declining foreign exchange earnings would clearly result is a contracting economy based mainly on imports and which would have major implications for a tax regime dependent mostly on VAT.

    Barbados has, in theory (and legislation) a fairly modern and sophisticated tax system given it small geographical size and limited economic configuration. The problem is one of management and enforcement.

  26. Bernard Codrington. Avatar
    Bernard Codrington.

    @ William at 9: 37 AM

    You might have noticed that in yesterday’s topic David , Artax etc displayed some concerns with the issues consequential to the Budget which to their minds were not properly addressed. One section in the printed media made the Budget headlines again yesterday. Do you not think it reasonable for the Blog Master to explore and ventilate this issue further? Mr. Sinkler in that referenced press interview asked for ideas.

    I know from certain key phrases lifted from the BU Blog and inserted in their public speeches, that they, the political class, troll this blog.

    I must confess that I too have a cognitive bias towards topic that impact negatively on my country.

  27. Bernard Codrington. Avatar
    Bernard Codrington.

    @ Miller 10: 22 AM

    Very , very good. I had almost given up on you.

  28. Frustrated Businessman: enact Facilitation Martial Law! Avatar
    Frustrated Businessman: enact Facilitation Martial Law!

    Miller, it is a fact that most people listen to respond, not to learn.

    In an effort to reinforce your misinformed opinion you are reading to respond and missing my point completely. I will try keyboard shouting.

    The poor are already carrying the burden of all the taxes that are charged PRIOR TO SALE OF GOODS AND SERVICES PLUS THE INTEREST PAID ON INVENTORY BORROWING.

    VAT is charged AT THE SELLING POINT OF GOODS AND SERVICES.

    The main difference is what is done with the money IN-BETWEEN THE TWO.

    Read my posts again.

    Removal of all other taxes and replacing them with VAT will free up cash for businesses to invest in people, plant, advertising etc. and GROW THE ECONOMY.

    Cash to an economy is like water to a plant. It is the only thing that can make it grow.

    VAT IS THE ONLY FAIR TAX. Fair for the state, fair for the end-user and, most of all, fair for all the people in-between who make an economy work.

  29. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Bernard Codrington.June 16, 2017 at 10:27 AM
    “@ Miller 10: 22 AM
    Very , very good. I had almost given up on you.”

    I, too, have not (yet) given up on you, B C.

    We on BU are still awaiting from you at least one recommendation to ensure the much needed growth in the economy in order to steer the ship away from the visibly dangerous financial rocks ahead.

    Why not put your intellectual money where your critical BU mouth is?

    I am prepared to do likewise!

  30. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ Bernard Codrington
    I think you have missed my point. David cannot
    Operate like that – allowing things when it suits his
    purpose. Just recently many people hijacked
    Angela Cole’s article. He should have applied the
    same rule then.

  31. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @Frustrated Businessman
    A poor household spends all income on consumption. If someone is earning $10k per year (after income tax) they spend every last cent just to make it through; if VAT applied to everything this would mean that they spend 17.5% of their earnings on VAT. If someone is earning $200k per year (after income tax) they may save $30k, spend another $30k going on holiday to NY or London and another $40k on kids in school abroad; this leaves $100k of local consumption so this would mean that they spend only 8.75% of their earnings on VAT. This difference is what some of us regard as unfair. The poor person ends up spending a higher percentage of their meagre income contributing to maintaining public services than the well off person does.

  32. Bernard Codrington. Avatar
    Bernard Codrington.

    @ Frustrated at10 :38 AM

    You personally may use your ” freed up cash” to invest in people, plant, advertising etc. “. Can you really be sure that other “unfrustrated” businessmen will do the same?

    If ” cash” can make the economy grow and there is excess cash (liquidity in the economy} how come there is no growth?
    Do you really mean cash? The accounting/ economic definition for cash is unutilized and underutilised short term/ liquid funds. In the financial system bank deposits exceed loans at the present moment. An excess which recent proposal plan to lend to GOB. Basically the same is happening with the Surplus liquidity at NIS . Hence the temptation for government to borrow.
    I think you need to revisit your assertion on freed cash and growth.

  33. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Frustrated Businessman: enact Facilitation Martial Law!June 16, 2017 at 10:38 AM

    F B, let us get your position straight and clear. Are you recommending that all other taxes and levies be abolished and replaced with VAT, with or without exemptions?

    What would happen when there is an economic recession or a drop in the country’s capacity to earn foreign exchange to pay for the imported goods and services on which a relatively high elastic transactional tax such as VAT is based?

    There is another side to your ‘only’ VAT proposal.

    The income and earning capacity of the average consumer or the man and woman in the street must be raised to the point where he or she can bear the VAT and pay privately for many of the goods and services which the State traditionally provides but would be significantly cut back because of the reduced tax sources such as personal and corporation income taxes, taxes on properties and other forms of direct and indirect taxation.

    VAT alone is not the panacea for achieving improved fiscal performance but a combination of VAT and taxes on property to meet the twin canons of taxation (Benefit principle and the ability to pay).

    The people- the likes of Due and Friedlaender- who advised the Bajan government about the introduction and implementation of the same attractive VAT system would not entirely agree with your ‘solo’ tax proposal to meet the fiscal requirements of a modern but still fragile economy.

  34. Bernard Codrington. Avatar
    Bernard Codrington.

    @ miller at 11: 06 AM

    When your party or BU party control the majority in the House of Assembly I will deal with you. The proposal is not for sale. In fact if you followed my interventions on this Blog and elsewhere,you would have seen them. If you did not see them then how will repetition improve on this?

    Moreover are you in any position to implement them if I were to disclose them?

  35. David Avatar
    David

    @Peter

    You have to be careful doing a straight-line comparison between middleincome and those at the bottom. Shouldn’t there be an incentive maintain grow the middleincome group to act as a ‘draft’ for those below? We have to be careful how we tinker with a middleincome group we have invested so much to anchor the economy.

  36. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @David
    You are completely correct… the straight line comparison was a simplification to explain why consumption taxes are regressive.

    There is a mistaken view prevalent among conservatives that investors create economic growth: this is erroneous, economic growth is accomplished by middle class consumption and spending patterns, investors are simply middlemen who seek to exploit opportunities created by those middle class spending and consumption patterns. So we need to grow the middle class.

    This is why the Social Partnership proposal to reduce the VAT rate makes sense… it is a way of modestly expanding the purchasing power of the middle class in search of economic growth.

  37. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    @ David

    I clicked on the link you provided but did not see the report.

  38. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @David
    the link does not go to the report

  39. Bernard Codrington. Avatar
    Bernard Codrington.

    @ Miller at 11 : 39 AM

    VAT and Taxes on Property/ assets.

    What happens if there is no cash flow to pay the taxes on assets/ Land? Will someone create a Land Bank? Will we do a fire sale to Foreign investors?

    Miller, I advise that you wait until you are in a position to take an objective assessment of what the real situation is.
    If you are really the Miller that I think you are you would be aware that most of these external evaluations are based on opinion rather than hard facts. David also pointed out yesterday they are also based on econometric models that bear little relationship on how the Barbados economy really reacts to a volley of external shocks.

  40. David Avatar
    David

    Thanks Artax and Peter, link updated.

    @Bernard

    Now understand your question posed earlier. Sorry for posting the wrong link.

    @William

    We have been at this for 10 years, we know the trolls and their objectives. The decision to protect the quality of the blog is ours.

  41. Bernard Codrington. Avatar
    Bernard Codrington.

    Peter Lawrence at 12 : 05 Pm

    I agree with you. The periods of rapid growth took place in those years under Barrow, Tom and Arthur when the Middle Class expanded.

  42. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Bernard Codrington.June 16, 2017 at 11:41 AM

    BC, I will let your red herring off the hook since it is too politically ‘smelly’ for my boat.
    Since you are afraid to “sell” your proposals openly on BU in case they find their way into some BLP manifesto why not do your national duty by rendering a favour to the current beleaguered administration and heed their SOS call to save your beloved Barbados?

    Why not, undercover, send to the MoF your workable proposals for economic growth instead of succumbing to the blows of additional taxation the man has imposed on an already crippled economic horse? I am certain he will entertain your proposals the same way he takes advice on the correct use of decimals and fractions.

    As a ‘trained’ economist, you ought to know that excessive taxation on an already overburden economy is like gramoxone to a man who has already drunk bleach to commit suicide.

  43. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Bernard Codrington.June 16, 2017 at 12:18 PM

    What happens if there is no cash flow to pay wages/salaries/dividends to pay the VAT on the imported goods and services paid from dwindling reserves of forex?

    Sell the same assets to foreign investors as happened with BNB, BL&P and will soon be happening to the BNTCL and most likely NPC?

    One, one taxation blows will eventually kill the old cash-flow cow.

  44. Bernard Codrington. Avatar
    Bernard Codrington.

    @ Miller 12 :35 PM

    Keep on fishing. You obviously do not have the capacity to recognize fish, fowl or good red herring.

    Please refer to Frustrated Businessman’s first two paragraphs in his submission at 10 :38 AM. I concur with him. I believe that I erred in catching at a straw of hope.

    Carry on smartly . You are doing fine.

  45. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    DAVID

    You always threatening to delete my comments.
    However you are of the opinion that this is a free forum.

    If you don’t want anyone posting any comments which are not favourable to your Barbados Labour Party just say so.

    At the mast head of your blog pin that you don’t want anyone posting comments which are fair and balance.

    Only Barbados Labour Party comments are welcome. Every one will get the message.

    Capisce?

  46. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    Interesting paper……only usefull for long term implementation.

    The now and short of it, is that we are in such deep doo doo that only the IMF programme that OSA spoke about if still available can bring us out…..which will give us the breathing space to implement some of the above.

    The MOF said that a review on everything was being readied for October,when the real budget would be presented.

    The IMF normally takes 6 months from application to roll out…..(I wonder if the PM saw the light and in October after the 6 months of hardship we will hear of an IMF programme)

    The Unions have to strike and force the Govt to go to the IMF……

    On Brasstacks on tuesday McDowell made an interesting statement that has not been refuted or mentioned by any one to the effect that according to the Central Bank report that govt’s wage bill has fallen by 100M already hence his argument for talks on salary increases or allowances.

    Round and round we go………….where we stop no one knows……….not realising that time is of the essence……these discussions carry us no where,sadly they will only serve to massage our old egos……we need action now.

  47. David Avatar
    David

    @Vincent

    Is it not so familiar to you?

    Have a read what transpired during the Greece finacial crisis.

    Has Bernard is won’t to say, it will correct.

  48. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ DavidJune 16, 2017 at 2:15 PM

    The difference between the crisis in Greece and the daily deteriorating economic situation in Barbados is that Greece has its financial godfather the EU Central Bank along with IMF money and strictures to hold its hand and guide it out of the crisis.

    Barbados cannot get that kind of support unless the IMF takes control of the monetary and fiscal landscape.

  49. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    Barbados is not going to the IMF.

  50. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    When Barbados opted to leave the EC Currency Authority and establish its own currency in place of the EC dollar,Barrow assumed that Barbados would always be capable of managing its monetary and fiscal affairs to the extent that what we are experiencing now would not have entered the equation.Barrow would have scoffed at the idea of a Garsun boy who has no background in anything scientific would be in charge of his ministerial portfolio of Finance.Worse yet,the man occupying his office and ministry would consider the unscientific and arbitrary,irrational taxed extractions called budgetary proposals from 2010 to 2017 as drawn and expressed as eminent.We continue to exist in a state of flux.

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