Woe to the People - Even More Taxes

Details

Economy

Tuesday, 05 June 2012 02:30

By press release

Antigua St John's - The Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party is warning the public of the heavier debt burden and increasing taxes that the UPP government is placing on everyone.

The ALP pointed to an announcement by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last Friday that it is agreeing to lend the government approximately another US$20 million.

“This further debt burden has not come about because the UPP government has miraculously become credit worthy; it has happened because the IMF said the government undertook to implement ‘corrective measures’”, the ALP said.

 “The corrective measures are imposition of even more taxes on the people, such as the latest travel tax.  This additional travel tax means that every person who has to travel for any reason whatsoever has to find EC$90 to give to the government before a ticket can be purchased”, the Labour Party statement said.

“If a man, his wife and one child need to go to nearby Dominica or St Vincent, before they buy their tickets, they will have to find EC$270.   On top of that will be the various other taxes the government charges which together cost more than the fare charged by the airline”.

The ALP also pointed out that the cost of travel by tourists into Antigua and Barbuda has also risen by this tax. 

“A family of three coming to Antigua, from anywhere in the world, also have to pay an additional EC$270 before they can travel here.  At a time of stiff competition in international tourism, the UPP government is harming tourism to our country and will put even more people out of work”.

The Labour Party statement pointed out that the IMF said ‘timely implementation of structural reforms in revenue administration and public financial management will be particularly important’.

“What the IMF means by this is that the UPP has to increase its revenues. But since the economy continues to contract with businesses closing and unemployment rising, the only way the UPP can increase revenues is by taxing the highly over-taxed people and businesses even more”.

The ALP also pointed the finger at the UPP’s poor supervision and abuse of Antigua Investment Bank that forced the government to pour taxpayers’ money into saving the bank and its shareholders from potential law suits.

“If the UPP government had properly supervised the bank and had not borrowed excessively from it, this additional debt burden on the people would never have happened”.

“The UPP government proves every day that its only solution to the dire straits into which it has sunk our country is desperate borrowing and more and more taxes on the people with nothing to show for it”, the ALP concluded.

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