Today Prime Minister Mia Mottley will deliver the Budget for 2022 at 3PM. It will be of interest to pundits for several reasons. It comes against rising oil price caused by the Russia Ukraine conflict which threatens to deplete the foreign reserves government has been boasting, and a cashflow pressured by having reallocate funds to…
Today Prime Minister Mia Mottley will deliver the Budget for 2022 at 3PM. It will be of interest to pundits for several reasons. It comes against rising oil price caused by the Russia Ukraine conflict which threatens to deplete the foreign reserves government has been boasting, and a cashflow pressured by having reallocate funds to cover pandemic expenses.
Of concern to others – including the blogmaster – will be government’s developmental programs to improve quality of life for Barbadians.
@David, in addition to that brief Nation report I recall seeing their budget highlights social media push which also mentioned some one time tax increases … but as a first look it does appear the PM was diligent on putting money into the hands of the folks who needed it most.
I was caught tho by the mentioned freight costs increases which seemed quite high … I remember folks here taking about prices increases during Covid by at the time my reaction was quite meh (muted) because I too had experienced Covid inflation in my nave … but seeing those alleged freight increases I was taken aback and wondered just HOW HIGH were those local price increases. You guys might have been really smacked it seems!
Thus if the pull back to pre-Covid freight ranges are TRULY implemented and coupled with the reduction in gas prices and too the Zero VAT rated items there should be some needed relief. Or is this more smoke and mirrors 😎😒!
And what about that 15% tax on corporate net profit over $5M … aren’t those companies going to simply increase their income (read prices) accordingly to compensate for the imposed levy!!
The 1% one off levy on Bajans making over $75K will cause a middle-class ruckus of course but as things stand currently with war afoot that’s a few less discretionary purchases really and not a massive burden.
All in all quite fair. So when comes the real pain den… is that in the deep dive or is that yet to come… What’s the word on dat!!!
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for his creation of the Bu trap
that reminds us
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Govt’s plan
KEY FISCAL MEASURES
1. Effective March 16, 2022 the dollar amount of VAT payable on gasoline will be capped at 47 cents per litre for six (6) months.
2. Effective March 16, 2022 the dollar amount of VAT payable on diesel will be capped at 37 cents per litre for six(6) months.
3. Freight costs will be capped at 2019 levels of US$7,350 per 20 foot container and US$8,000 per 40 foot container from March 15, 2022 until March 31, 2023 for the purpose of calculating customs duties.
4.A fixed rate of $1.80 per cubic metre will be introduced for water in the agricultural sector effective May 1, 2022.
5. VAT on selected personal and critical care items will be zero-rated from April 1, 2022.
6. Commencing July 1, 2022 a one off Pandemic Contribution tax of 15% is due on the taxable income for 2020 and 2021 for the banking, insurance, telecoms and oil and gas wholesalers.
7. For a period of 12 months from April 1, 2022, a Pandemic Contribution Levy of 1% will be paid by individuals who earn a gross personal income above $75,000 for a period of 12 months.
8. The land tax threshold on residential properties will increase to $300,000 from the 2023-2024 financial year. From April 1, 2026, no land tax will be due on properties with a value of less than $400,000.
9. There will be a moratorium on interest on outstanding NIS contributions with effect from April 1, 2022 to June 30, 2022 with principal settlement within two years.
10. The NIS is to transition to an independent state owned enterprise by year end.
11 The NIS will administer all public sector pensions from January 1, 2024.
12. The pension legislation will be amended to allow for automatic abatement for public officers on early retirement.
13. All new public officers earning above the earnings ceiling will be required to contribute to their pensions.
14.The national insurance earnings ceiling will be increased to $1,182 per week or $5,120 per month with effect from January 1, 2023.
15. A revolving capital loan facility will be secured for the Barbados Water Authority to execute capital works.
16. From April 1, 2022 commercial customers of natural gas will pay: A. $2.28 for consumption up to 500 cubic meters.
B. $2.24 for consumption from 501 to 2500.
C. $2.22 for 2,501 to 10,000 cubic meters and D. $2.20 for consumption over 10,000 cubic meters.
E. For domestic customers, the rental fee for the rental of meters will increase from $5 to $10 per month.
F. For commercial customers the fee will increase from $15 to $25 per month.
17. There will be an Alternate Fuel Levy of $25 per month plus $0.02 per km over 15,000 kms annually from July 1, 2022.
18. There will be an Excise and VAT holiday on electric vehicles for 24 months commencing April 1, 2022.
19. There will be a realignment of rates for electric vehicles and other alternate fuelled vehicles in the customs tariff.
20. From April 1, 2022 the loan limit for public servants will be increased to
$100,000 to facilitate the purchase of electric or alternate fuelled vehicles.
21. Effective April 1, 2022, a waiver of import duty and VAT will be granted for two years on the purchase and installation of generators at residential homes.
22. Authorised car rental companies will pay 50% of the license and the remainder will be deferred for a maximum of twelve (12) months commencing April 1, 2022 to replenish fleet of vehicles.
Facility available for 18 months.
23.Legislation is to be drafted to introduce reverse mortgages.
24. National Payments System Legislation to be proclaimed on April 15, 2022 25. Fair Credit Reporting legislation to be proclaimed on April 15, 2022.
26. Establishment of the National Payments System Council by April 30, 2022.
27. Legislation to be introduced to facilitate deposit insurance for credit unions.
28. Legislation to be introduced to facilitate the sanitary and phytosanitary measures by mid term review 2022.
29. The Excise tax on sweetened beverages will be increased from 10% to 20% with effect from April 1, 2022.
30. Legislation to be introduced to create free zones
Budget nod
BCCI, PSV BODY WELCOME INITIATIVES, DLP NOT IMPRESSED
By Emmanuel Joseph
The local business sector has described the Government’s 2022 Budget as fair and balanced.
Reacting to the Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposals presented in the House of Assembly on Monday evening by Prime Minister Mia Mottley, president of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) Anthony Branker said the measures addressed many of the sectors of the economy.
Branker was particularly impressed by the Prime Minister’s renewable energy proposals that would allow “every Barbadian being able to benefit”. He promised a more in depth BCCI analysis later.
The Prime Minister told the country that her Government would work with the Barbados Light and Power to develop a minimum of 30 mega watts of wind energy investment at Lamberts in St. Lucy.
“We will establish financial instruments to make it possible for Barbadians of all walks of life, to participate in, and to own a minimum of a 30 per cent share in the benefits of that 30MW on-shore wind project at Lamberts,” Mottley announced.
“Under my government Sir, Barbadians must never ever be reduced to being tenants in their own country, and therefore we will ensure as a recurring theme of energy investment in this country, that we will create opportunities for the Barbadian public to participate in all major energy investment projects,” she added.
However, the Chamber of Commerce president did not think that the challenges which investors and other business people experience in transacting business in Barbados were adequately dealt with in the budget.
“The one area I would have liked the Prime Minister to have spoken to more was the ease of doing business with Government.
I know she spoke about digitisation, but the ease of doing business across the public sector is an area I would have wanted to hear a little more about,” Branker declared.
The Democratic Labour Party (DLP), while also supporting the Government’s proposals for the renewable energy sector, has otherwise poured scorn on the budgetary measures in general.
Third vice president Ryan Walters said the DLP sees the use of renewable energy as a major vehicle for economic democracy and diversification in Barbados.
“The DLP is pleased that the Mia Mottley administration has finally and enthusiastically embraced the renewable energy revolution which was a cornerstone of the DLP’s economic policy between 2008 and 2018,” Walters said.
Citing a study by Professor Olav Hohmeyer, he contended that in 2010 there were four solar electricity systems in Barbados accounting for seven kilowatts (KW) of installed capacity and that by 2017 this had grown to 850 solar electricity systems accounting for 22,885 KW of installed capacity.
The DLP spokesman suggested that the government continues to speak futuristically while the country has to contend with a present-day reality of taxation, borrowing and spending.
“The immediate relief or slowdown in price of imported food on the shelves is unlikely to reach the end consumers. The capping of duties on ocean freight by itself without appropriate measures to ensure savings are passed on to the citizens will see the price of goods on the shelves remain the same or even get higher,” Walters argued.
He said he was joining with an executive of a major group of companies who said recently that Government’s plan to help ease the cost of living will depend on businesses passing on savings to consumers.
“In other words, the decision is left with the private sector. It is disappointing that the government has not identified any specific measure to ensure that savings are indeed passed on. To defend this theory, when the NSRL was removed in July 2018 even up to six months after that date the retail price index showed an increase of five percent in the cost of food in Barbados. We are at the same juncture again today.
“The DLP holds to its manifesto position that to shield Bajans from high fuel cost, the practical and more effective way to do that was to lower the excise tax on fuel in order to get the maximum savings to consumers especially as prices rise on the international market.” Walters pointed out.
He said that Government’s budgetary measure to cap the VAT does not offer the level of protection that is needed in an environment where commodities can rise exponentially.
“The Prime Minister admitted that they are not using the excise tax as a basis for relief because the Government needs the money.
So in essence, the Government is hoping to cash in on this crisis when it comes to the price of petroleum products,” the party executive stated.
“After being savagely raped by the debt restructuring in 2018, the financial sector is again being abused to finance the excesses of the Government,” he charged. “Ordinary Barbadians who work for these companies are likely to bear the brunt of this new tax grab on the private sector as it is quite possible their bonuses and incentives will take a hit. Furthermore, what is stopping these businesses from passing on the cost of the pandemic levy to customers?”
Walters said that instead of the Prime Minister addressing the issue of Government expenditure and lack of growth, persons earning more than $6,250 are now seen as well-off.
“Instead of incentivising this group earning above this level to invest in the growth of the country, you are effectively asking them to unfairly take a salary cut. The government is transferring the burden onto businesses, who have a history of passing on the costs to consumers. We are back at square one,” the DLP official argued.
The DLP promised it will present more comprehensive comments during its official response to the budget on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Meanwhile, the private-owned Public Service Vehicle sector which is said to have some 2,500 taxis and 800 PSVs welcomed the proposed reduction in fuel prices at the pump.
“It is welcoming news for the PSV industry as well as the taxi fraternity. We are happy that the Government has been able to reduce fuel costs by 14 cents and we welcome that,” Chairman of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT) Roy Raphael told Barbados TODAY Monday evening.
“We are hoping as an industry to capitalise on the 10 per cent import duty that Government would put onto electric vehicles,”
Raphael added.
He recalled that a previous study had showed that members of the sector were not interested in transitioning their vehicles to electricity due to a lack of clarity on how the system would work.
However, the AOPT head reports that now, owners and operators of PSVs are embracing the move towards renewable energy-powered vehicles based on much clearer information.
“After having much discussions with the relevant authorities which includes the IADB and the Ministry of Energy, we were able to come up with a proposal that will see a number of the PSVs, hired cars and taxis transitioning to electric vehicles,” he stated.
Raphael revealed that his union has already started talks with a company out of Trinidad to start testing converters which will help make the change from fossil fuel to natural gas-powered vehicles. emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
So where are the BU experts to enlighten the people about what’s ahead?
Master Sha Soul Healing
Chanting Practice to Open Your Soul Language Channel “Great”
They always got an expert on BU for every reason and for every season…and an expert on everybody….especially on ME…
hope they got a PAIN and SUFFERING expert too….
DIVINESOULHEALING Soul Power Series
Dr. and Master Sha- How To Develop Your Kundalini
hope they got a PAIN and SUFFERING expert too….
My best advice for anyone who wants more pain and suffering is
read the works of “African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved”
the harder the battle the sweeter the victory
God will never give you more than you can handle
Many people have experienced similar hard lessons and challenges of legal battles in scam Courts for years up to or over a decade to stress weaken and eventually strengthen them to overcome and eventually become victorious
Processes of releasing the emotions sadness and anger stored and expressing them is a long path where the journey is the learning experience in itself
In my view the Budget was as expected. Coming out of the pandemic there would be the intention of protecting the economy from any more shocks that would stifle growth. Hence the capping of container costs back to 2019 levels and on VAT imposed on gas and diesel.
I strongly predicted the capping of vat on fuel. Less than one month after the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war and with the sanctions on Russia, the price of gas and diesel jumped by 14c and 17c respectively. Having price jumps to that effect every month with no projection of when the Russo-Ukrainian War will end is too much of a shock. Capping it for 6 months should hopefully be enough time for the World Price of oil to “right out itself” close to pre war levels. The govt seems intent to not have the price of gas go above $4.00/ litre. We will see how long this intent lasts.
The Pandemic Levies\Tax on personal income for the high wage earners and the more profitable businesses should not be a surprise. What has to be seen is if these levies will only last 12 months
“the harder the battle the sweeter the victory
God will never give you more than you can handle”
Do you know or pretending not to how many CENTURIES they been hearing that TOTAL SHITE generationally and daily while every lowlife imaginable and their mudda slither on to the island and rob them daily and generationally…..people they do not even know are there….wuh it int me they robbing so what do i care….but it’s nice to point it out and keep the juciest parts secret…so keep telling them if they work even harder and drop dead with nothing to leave for their families, they will go to heaven and even get seven virgins..don’t know what the women will get but am sure you can come up with something…make me laugh harder do.
@DL&P TV
The reality is that the open economy we have that has been affected by the pandemic and before that the period of the so-called lost decade – we find the country in a precarious state.
Underlying our challenges has been an unwillingness (seeming inability) to diversify revenue streams by firing up other productive sectors.
#wip?
Keep on misleading them, ya looking good, they are already calling BU Barbados Misleading Underground…..for all the shite spewed in the last 2-3 years…,,..that was not my creation, but i totally undersand why.,…
Can’t even get Piece to come out.,.,,,he got the lowdown on that one, and playing he gone into hiding, i came to the party years later….holding dynamite i did not even ask for, just my luck…but when i pelt that shite…stan clear…..they claim Job int got nutten on me, so it could be a while…
Oh dear! You people make me laugh! Is it at all possible that Justice Chase made the RIGHT decision??????
As for the budget, an attempt has been made to ease the pain for those who need an ease.
We’ll see how it plays out!
When one take a look at all the giveaways big businesses have received to keep them afloat in past two years
The people on meager incomes are receiving nothing counting the fees attached to all other bills
What are “all the giveaways [to] big businesses “?
DavidMarch 15, 2022 12:19 PM
What are “all the giveaways [to] big businesses “?
Xxxxx
U are one of those bajans that have short memory
What u ought to do is have a refreshers course in what have govt done in the past two years to help big business
Tax cuts
Tax waivers
300million in govt hand outs
Even of recent buying back school stock from big business who cried loud and hard about losses
Also giving big Cruise a free hand out in berthing fees
On top of all that exempting big Cruise responsibility in fixing reefs
Not to mention executive privilege in high wages while low-end wagers were handed a measly 3.60US
Now govt hands out 14cent Tax break and all happy to receive a pittance
As big business strolls along happily looking at the good benefits which can be retrieve from high oil prices which they can pass on to customer while the laughing happily on their way to the bank
David we cannot diversify revenue streams by firing up other productive sectors when we churn out graduates by the thousands in social science and humanities and barely produce engineers and scientists. When SJPP costs more out of pocket per semester than UWI where is the skilled labour going to come from.
Welcome Stamp obviously needs to be expanded because we simply do not have many persons highly skilled in software development, AI and data science. But those persons will invest zero dollars when they encounter the gatekeepers of the bureaucracy, no amount of sea, sand and rum can overcome that. We simply want their VAT dollars. No innovation or increase in productivity in this country will occur until the upper management of all ministries is placed on performance contracts or simply fired and replaced with professionals.
On another note can we get some actuarial analysis of the attempts to control the singularity at Collymore Rock.
Big business employ people by any chance? Is there a benefit to ensure business is supported?
@Redguard
A stinging indictment of Barbados given the investment in education over the years.
We can pick up any number of engineers and scientists from the flood of refugees leaving Ukraine, and Russia
The real problem we face is how do we get these 30 squatters out of our House of Assembly.
Somebody should really go and stop that war single-handedly, big talk don’t stop wars…
Our Supreme Leader is truly a brilliant tactician and strategist. All the world is now looking at the budget, which merely shuttles tax cuts and tax increases back and forth. It’s like the shell game of the gypsies.
Everyone is watching spellbound, not realising that we are about to get the next IMF programme. Our Supreme Leader knows her Aborigines inside out and knows how easy they are to blind.
“What are “all the giveaways [to] big businesses?“
“Big business employ people by any chance? Is there a benefit to ensure business is supported?”
[disclaimer: I haven’t studied any specific budget details]
Regarding the election call there was an anticipation it was to gain a mandate for hard financial calls to be made due to serious financial hardship. In the sense that this has not happened, you could say businesses were let off lightly / given a bly.
There are a number of factors why, such as :
There is a fine between squeezing businesses and people and forcing and driving them into bankruptcy.
It would be like getting blood out of a stone due to depleted or lack of monies.
Cynical conspiracy theorists and political partisans might say that Government would prefer to wait for more income cash / savings before raising taxes and raiding savings accounts.
Negative dire predictions, stress, worries and problems about Covid affecting economies building up, now seem to be slowly and reversing releasing and rescinding, now the virus seems more manageable, and businesses and tourism industry can organically reopen and grow back again as a homeopathic solution and remedy for the health of economy to make a full system recovery.
Anyone aspiring to be an intellectual will need to up their game and build their skills and actions if they wish to make it into the big league
Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart Insult Each Other | CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE!
Will Smith & Margot Robbie Insult Each Other | CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE!
@Dub, it’s amusing and interesting that you offer those tidbits on the day after our local decorous insult theatre in our House of Assembly … During budget debates the parliamentarians do attempt to up their game to impress viewers/listeners but invariably the insults (mild to suit the pageantry and pomp) will fly!
I saw a clip from the second skit recently and didn’t realize it was part of a regular show or series or whatever … I laughed and recalled my school days surely when Smith, after being told he was the worst looking character in a movie which included a dog and some other less attractive creature (don’t recall the specifics) riposted with the ever lasting puerile stab that will do the job (to paraphrase): oh you thought I was the worst compared to all those others… Ok, well you only thought so because you knew I had slept with your mother!
All that to say, that happens every day in general life and mostly never as a joke … we can grow up and get out of the puerile stage but we seem to never get the puerile behaviour out of us!
The transformation of individual transport in the latest budget is half-baked. On the one hand, electric cars are to be tax-free, on the other hand petrol is subsidised. The two do not go together at all. In addition, the batteries of electric cars will have to be replaced after 8 years at the latest. Are people supposed to pay full taxes and customs duties to feed fat and lazy civil servants for that?
It seems to me that Greendidge and Persaud created this section of the budget. Time for our Supreme Leader to finally get some competent advisors!
One more thing about the budget and transformation of promotion. In the good old days of the plantation industry, when Barbados was rich and free, our islanders were slim and healthy because they walked and worked physically. Now almost all are overweight and a great many suffer from diseases of civilisation because they drive every metre.
This is another reason why fossil fuel should not be subsidised. In my opinion, it is perfectly reasonable to walk 10 kilometres to work and back PER DAY. It would also take a lot of pressure off our health system.
It’s all gone to laughable shit already…too late to save anything, but YOURSELF…..those who can think for THEMSELVES…those who are not too WEAK and COMPROMISED….those who have not SOLD OUT FOR A MESS OF POTTAGE….
and now reap the GRAPES OF WRATH…
David BU took a long break to come back to see the parrot John and AC talking the same shite.As far as the court case is concerned i agree that Mr Brathwaite should have to pay all costs related to this case brought by him in my view for tje dems to frustrate the work of the government.I gone.
The loser usually has to pay …. unless he is indemnified or has some undertaking.
So what will happen now is the Government will ask the court for security for costs before the matter can be appealed.
The GOB pulled that stunt with the Scotland District Association back in 1995.
The appeal was stymied.
Now, if a Class Action suit were brought the costs could be shared.
Clearly the decision is wrong and needs to be appealed!!!
The court has concentrated on the Senate but it is the lower house that needs to declared unconstitutional.
The Senate then falls apart.
There has to be an opposition for Parliament to be constitutional and there is none.
A blind man can see that.
@David
“The QEH must transition to an independent trust”.
How do you interpret this comment by the PM?
xxxxxx
“The Prime Minister said she will be holding the boards of directors of SOEs responsible for their operation.”
Is that operation of the Board? Or have the BoD now got a renewed authority.
It sounds like a politically correct thing to say. Have we ever been able to demonstrate that SOEs run tight operations?
@Tron 5.28pm
Is this what is otherwise called ‘downsizing’?
btw…the other person who often mentioned this was the late C.O.W.
What about the ‘independent trust’?
@NO
How does an independent trust work for the QEH? This is new territory.
Pension change comes under fire
by RACHELLE AGARD rachelleagard@nationnews.com
GOVERNMENT’S MOVE to change the full pension qualification for public officers from 33 and a third years of service to 40 is receiving the thumbs down from the island’s largest public sector trade union.
General secretary of the National Union of Public Workers, Richard Greene, told the MIDWEEK NATION yesterday they wanted a review of all pension arrangements for the Public Service, as singling out public officers was not fair and equitable to the whole pension system.
He has received support from general secretary of Unity Workers Union, Caswell Franklyn, who described the decision as “unconscionable”.
While it is not clear when the measure will take effect, Greene said public servants will have to work longer and make adjustments in preparation for retirement as moving from 33 and a third years will now disadvantage those who will now be eligible at 40 years.
“Even if you work 40 years, you still get your pension calculated at 33 and a third years, which is the maximum. If you work for 20 years, [pension] would be calculated at that amount, but if you work for 35 years, it would be calculated at 33 and a third. If you work longer than 33 and a third years, your pension would be based on your salary, which would be a bit higher. Moving it to 40 years now could disadvantage some public officers, who would now reach their maximum 60 years later than they would have previously,” he explained.
General secretary of Unity Workers Union, Caswell Franklyn, recalled that late Prime Minister Tom Adams had reversed the previous 40-year decision to 33 and a third years because public servants had rebelled against the move.
“Mind you, he left the 40 years for statutory boards, but the Public Service was reverted to 33 and a third. Now [Government] is doing the same thing all over again, and they do not understand what they’re doing. They cannot do this . . . and think it is okay,” he complained.
“I have heard nothing about taking the age for MPs (Members of Parliament) from 12 years. They get a maximum pension of two-thirds of their salary after 12 years in office, but would subject a public officer who is at 33 and a third to 40, but they will remain at 12? I cannot describe this behaviour. This is one for the books and is unconscionable,” Franklyn added.
He said while the International Monetary Fund stated it had done an actuarial study on the pension scheme, it was incorrect as the Public Service did not have a pension scheme.
“The Government was supposed to be depositing for you every month, 25 per cent of your salary into a fund, but they have never done it in all of the years. What they continue to do is to pay it from current revenue, so there has never been a pension scheme,” he charged. He said public servants should be getting 25 per cent more salary, but it was not paid to them, but instead withheld and paid in the form of a pension. “When you ask them to pay toward their pension, they are already paying the value of 25 per cent of their salary toward it. That is why people who work in the Public Service on contract and who are not entitled to a salary, they get 20 per cent and are not given the full 25 per cent,” Franklyn said. He added that while he was not a public officer, he could not bear this move, describing it as “the biggest stab in the back”.
Franklyn said MPs only had to work eight years to get half of their salary as their pension, and at 12 years they were entitled to two-thirds of their salary, while the Prime Minister only had to work one day to be eligible for two-thirds of the salary.
“This whole pension arrangement in this Budget is hurtful. It is a betrayal of the people who voted for this Government. Let the politicians apply the same pension arrangements to themselves and let them have to work for 40 years,” he said.
Source: Nation
Higher prices ‘on horizon’
BARBADIANS ARE LIKELY to soon face increased prices despite Government’s effort to shield them from higher costs by capping taxation on petroleum products and shipped goods.
Economist Professor Winston Moore and some senior members of the business community gave this assessment yesterday in response to Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley’s Budget proposals intended to give consumers a cost of living ease.
Moore, Professor of economics and deputy principal, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, told the Barbados Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s Post-Budget Breakfast Forum at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre that based on increased inflation in the United States, he expects higher prices to reach Barbados “over the next couple of months”.
“Our inflation rate last year was around three to four per cent. The statistics for the United States just came out and they are estimating that their rate of inflation for the last couple of months was around eight per cent,” he said.
“The fundamental thing that pushes up prices in Barbados is the price of food, so when you have prices in the United States going up by eight per cent, it obviously means that that is going to feed through into the price basket in Barbados as well.” On the capping of freight charges at the port, he predicted it would “take a while before those goods hit the shelf, so there is going to be a little bit of a lag effect coming through”. Barbados Chamber of Commerce & Industry president Anthony Branker said businesses were already “seeing our first costs on products that we import into Barbados across various categories increase by as much as 20 per cent.
“When you have your first cost increasing by 20 [to] 25 per cent, and you are paying ten per cent, 15 per cent or even 20 per cent on some of these products and the duty is removed, the net effect is not necessarily going to be a significant saving,” he said.
Branker also said there was a need for clarity on the capping of freight. Mottley announced that freight costs would be capped at 2019 levels of US$7 350 per 20-foot container and US$8 000 per 40-foot container from March 15, 2022, until March 31, 2023, for the purpose of calculating customs duties.
His view was that if there was a freight cost below the capped level, the lower value in the calculation of cost, insurance and freight should be applied, but Branker told
the forum: “I am understanding that that is not how it is going to work.
“If that is the intention, there is going to be no savings because there is a tremendous amount of goods brought out of CARICOM that are not of CARICOM origin but we pay less than US$3 000 on a container. Why would I now all of a sudden be paying US$7 000 and US$8 000 for that container because that is the cap?” he asked.
Goddard Enterprises Limited managing director Anthony Ali also spoke of current price increases that would threaten the cost of living relief offered in the Budget, including a 26 per cent hike in the cost of flour.
(SC)
Source: Nation
Concern over retroactive tax
A TAX EXPERT and some private sector representatives are concerned about Government’s effort to retroactively collect $105 million in taxes.
While happy with the “several progressive measures” announced in Monday’s Budget, PricewaterhouseCoopers (Pwc) tax partner Gloria Eduardo said it was unfortunate that the 15 per cent Pandemic Contribution Tax levied on commercial banks, insurance companies, telecommunication firms, and oil and gas wholesalers will be retroactive. Her concerns about the retrospective nature of the tax were shared by Barbados Private Sector Association chairman Trisha Tannis and Goddard Enterprises Limited managing director Anthony Ali. They were speaking yesterday at the PwC-sponsored Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry Post-Budget Breakfast Forum at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
“Unfortunately, this appears to be another instance of a tax being imposed retroactively rather than prospectively, which is a cause for concern for existing as well as future taxpayers, since it breaches several of the basic tenets of taxation, in particular, certainty and transparency,” Eduardo said.
Predictable
“Tax systems should also be stable and predictable as far as possible and the imposition of retroactive taxation is contrary to both of these principles.”
The tax expert also wanted clarity on how the temporary tax will operate. “As is often the case, it’s not clear how this levy is to be applied. The [Prime] Minister spoke about income 2020 and 2021 and then she spoke about years ended March 2022 and 2021, but most companies don’t have fiscal years ending March, so hopefully when the legislation is drafted it will be easy to interpret. But we know that . . . often the devil is in the detail,” she said.
Tannis said that while the financial services sector was not “terribly surprised” about the introduction of the Pandemic Contribution Tax, “what they are not very keen about is the retrospective aspect of the tax and that is something that is seen not to be as progressive as the tax itself.
“We all understand how we have to hold hands and how we have to walk through this crisis together. However, applying that tax retrospectively certainly is not sitting well with the sector, although they understand that there was a contribution to be made to the overall effort,” she said.
Ali called the retroactive nature of the tax “a nightmare” for affected businesses.
Calling the measure “the Perceived Sectoral Wealth Levy”, he said: “The reality is . . . there are certain sectors that carried the brunt of the burden for us in our financial restructuring and now to come and put another 15 per cent is again expected and reasonable to some degree. But the retroactive [aspect], the reality is most of us have closed our books on 2021. How are you going to go in and account for this?”
Took issue
Tannis also took issue with the view that the financial services sector had come through the economic crisis “unscathed”. “The same financial services sector formed the crux of the BERT (Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation) programme between May and October 2018. So they essentially bore the brunt of the debt restructuring landscape, so I was very uncomfortable hearing it being described as coming out unscathed in the pandemic. That doesn’t, I think, [give] the true underlying picture of the contribution of those sectors,” she added. (SC)
Source: Nation
Economist: Mixed signals on green economy
ECONOMIST MARLA DUKHARAN says Government is sending mixed signals in its quest to transition Barbados to a green economy.
She does not agree with the Budget proposal to impose an Alternate Fuel Levy on electric vehicles or incentivising the purchase of diesel-powered electricity generators.
“We need a consistent approach to policymaking. Either we are incentivising a change in behaviour, which is a switch to a more sustainable life, or we are not,” Dukharan said during the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Post-Budget Breakfast Forum at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre yesterday.
She praised the overall Budget, saying it was “probably the most outstanding ever delivered that I have heard on so many levels [and] rich in robust reforms and big on ideas”.
However, the economist did not favour the proposed Alternate Fuel Levy of $25 per month plus two cents per kilometre over 15 000 kilometres annually from July 1; or the waiver of import duty and value added tax which will be granted for two years on the purchase and installation of generators at residential homes effective April 1.
“As regards the Alternate Fuel Levy, I have to say that I disagree with this approach. In the first place it appears contradictory to me to apply various incentives for electric vehicles but then impose
this special tax to compensate for the loss in tax revenue based on these very incentives,” she said.
“In order to address the shortfall in revenue earmarked for road repairs, why not increase taxes on those vehicles which do the most damage to our roads anyway, such as large commercial vehicles and excavators, for example? Furthermore, why not impose tolls to use certain roads and use that revenue specifically for road repairs?” (SC)
Source: Nation
‘Missed opportunity’
BARBADOS PRIVATE SECTOR ASSOCIATION chairman Trisha Tannis has called Government’s Budget progressive, but she thinks the authorities missed “a fantastic opportunity” to meaningfuly reform state-owned enterprises (SOEs).
The senior business executive said that “other than naming the ten enterprises which came as no surprise to us…, I think we pulled up a bit short in actually driving home on what we absolutely need to see [with] state-owned enteprises”.
“I’d preferred to have seen a real deep dive to stop . . . the bleed, stem the bleed. There are hundreds of millions of dollars in fiscal space sitting down under these state-owned enterprises and the [International Monetary Fund] in their last report has really made recommendations, . . . one, that we need to have a financial health dashboard to monitor the state-owned enterprises, we have to strengthen governance,” she told the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Post-Budget Breakfast Forum yesterday.
Tannis said there was a need for SOEs to enhance revenue, reduce costs and that mergers and divestments were options Government could consider.
“It did not impress me a lot that one of stateowned enterprises that was named, the Transport Board, we actually over-transferred to the Transport Board by about $13 million during this fiscal year and it really just goes to show that we really need to get a lot more serious and urgent about plugging these fiscal gaps,” she stated.
“And if we do so we could find a gold mine, I am sure we will, just look at the Auditor General’s Report, there is a virtual gold mine of fiscal space there and I think that we need to rush towards that with alacrity.” Tannis also wanted improvements in the governance of SOE boards, including who was appointed as directors.
“I must say I wasn’t too impressed by the fact that we are about to bring members onto to the boards and then try to train them to be board directors,” she said. “That would not happen in the private sector, even you have the competence to be a board member and you can manage an entity or you are not a board member. So bringing them on and then trying to train them I think may have resulted in where we are here today.” (SC)
Source: Nation
Before the excitement is over Private sector issues a warning in which is stated that freight cost is not the only issue to rising prices
Mia Mottley came out of the paddock presenting herself as the champion of the people
A day later now the dust is clear and reality takes the lead private sector sounds the alarm bell
No one in their right mind would have expected that the private sector would simply lower prices in an environment where oil is used to produce everything under the sun
The budget was in simple terms a policy placed on a spectacle of smoke and mirrors to blind the people
Now private sector is issuing a warning that the expectation of lower prices because of lower freight charges is simply a pipe dream
angela coxMarch 16, 2022 5:34 AM
Before the excitement is over Private sector issues a warning in which is stated that freight cost is not the only issue to rising prices
Mia Mottley came out of the paddock presenting herself as the champion of the people
A day later now the dust is clear and reality takes the lead private sector sounds the alarm bell
No one in their right mind would have expected that the private sector would simply lower prices in an environment where oil is used to produce everything under the sun
The budget was in simple terms a policy placed on a spectacle of smoke and mirrors to blind the people
Now private sector is issuing a warning that the expectation of lower prices because of lower freight charges is simply a pipe dream
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NOT ANGELA COX!!!!!
Angela…ah guess the greedy private sector still ain’t pleased after looting the country…for over 40 years……..still trying to hog everything…
African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights ReservedMarch 16, 2022 9:06 AM
Angela…ah guess the greedy private sector still ain’t pleased after looting the country…for over 40 years……..still trying to hog everything…
Xxxxxx
Can’t blame them when govt is being dependant on them for votes and when rubber hits the ground govt cannot afford to risk the favour of tightening the screws on Private Sector
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