New taxes now in effect, but Pringle notes that Browne Administration has no plans to cushion the impact on residents
Opposition Leader Jamale Pringle is expressing disappointment that
the Gaston Browne Administration is yet to outline plans to cushion
the impact of the increase in the Antigua and Barbuda Sales
Tax (ABST).
The sales tax – a levy on goods and services – has increased as of
January 1, 2024, and the proceeds reportedly are to be used to fund
a promised 9 percent salary increase to public servants.
However, in his New Year message to the Nation, Pringle notes that,
while the people are being plunged into further hardship, the
Government has shared no plans to ease the squeeze.
He concludes that the Browne Administration does not care about
the people, as was demonstrated during the height of the COVID-19
pandemic when no relief was on offer.
Pringle is warning residents that this year will bring even greater
financial challenges since there is not only a steep hike in the ABST,
but in other taxes, including the airport tax.
As a result, he notes, prices at the supermarkets, the bars, the
hardware stores, the hairdressers, at the doctor’s office, and when
they travel among others will increase.
Referencing the national anthem, the Opposition leader calls on
residents to “gird your loins and join the battle,” as this is the time
for the people to take a stand against the injustice meted out to
them.
Opposition Leader Jamale Pringle.
Meanwhile, Pringle chides the Administration for putting out fake
financial figures and pie-in-the-sky promises, while – for the last
decade – what we have witnessed is the shrinking of the middle
class and the swelling of the ranks of the working poor.
Therefore, he says that 2024 must be the year for the people to take
back the land and redeem the country in order to ensure that no
worker, child, senior citizen, community, or constituency lives in
despair.
According to Pringle, the United Progressive Party, of which he is the
political leader, offers a better alternative to what now passes for
governance in this country. And he promises that the Party will
spare no effort to bring relief, release, and restoration to Antigua
and Barbuda. The Party did it before and can do it again, he
declares.
The people have suffered too much at the hands of this regime and
have lost too much already, the Opposition leader says, and things
should not remain as they are.
He says the people owe it to themselves and their children to pull
Antigua and Barbuda back from the state of moral and financial
bankruptcy in which it finds itself; and, by standing together, they
can get the country back on track.
