The leader of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Dr Ronnie Yearwood is predicting more taxes and fewer social services when Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley makes her budgetary statement next week.
Speaking at the DLP’s George Street, St Michael headquarters on Thursday, the DLP President argued that the ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP) destroyed the economy during their restructuring.
“The Government has projected a deficit of about $844 million. So let’s round it off and say we have a $1 billion deficit. That means we are going to have to borrow an additional $1 billion. What does that actually mean? That means that there could be increases in potential taxes and that means that there could be a decline in services that the Government provides,” Yearwood remarked.
He added that the Government was punching above its weight, borrowing up to $4 billion borrowed over five years and spending more than it is making.
“This Government over the last five years has borrowed about $4 billion including the recent projected estimates. And that should really worry and concern every Barbadian and it should concern us for a few reasons because of the recent billion that they are going to borrow, $466 million is foreign debt. And the reason that the government is borrowing so much foreign money is that they destroyed the local debt market. They destroyed the local debt market during the restructuring and now they have to hunt for foreign money,” Yearwood contended.
The DLP president also challenged what was listed as “Other” in the Estimates, which he referred to as inconspicuous.
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“What that means is that the Government doesn’t know where it’s going to get $337 million of the $1 billion that it needs to run the affairs of this country.”
“We should worry about a kind of inconspicuous column labelled ‘Other’ and it’s not being explained by the Government how they are going to source this ‘Other’ set of money. It means that the government does not know where it’s going to get that $300 or so million from and in effect we will continue to spend more than we currently earn.”
“This would continue to effect the lives of all Barbadians and we deserve to know the true story of how our Government is managing the affairs of this country,” he further asserted.
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