Budget lacks clear path and vision for growth
THE EDITOR, Madam:
THE 2021 budget presented to the parliament by Finance Minister Nigel Clarke lacks vision and a clear path to obtain sustainable economic growth and improvements in the quality of life of our people. In plain and simple parlance, the budget is no more than a “one-night full belly “set of initiatives that will not grow the economy.
It fails to address the key fundamentals that have been preventing our economy from growing over the decades. We have not been able to stabilise our exchange rate to competitive levels, fail to insert the requisite funding from the budget to fight crime, legislate against corruption, and to take politics out of budgetary allocation for social programmes.
The IMF and the World Bank quite recently warned Caribbean countries that their postCOVID-19 economic recoveries will be one of a “scared longhaul”, meaning that our recovery will be over the long term and will not recover fully from the scars of COVID-19. Where is the medium and long-term plan in the budget?
It was interesting that the morning after Dr Clarke’s presentation, the newspaper headlines were about the killing of five gunmen by the police in August Town. This only elucidates the point that crime and crime-fighting, if not addressed and given budgetary support, then our tasks for greater GDP output becomes even harder.
The minister’s presentation was punctuated with the punchline “no new taxes”, but based on the hardship the consumers, especially the poor are facing, one would not expect the minister to impose even one cent of tax increases.
I have to agree with the Opposition spokesperson on finance that the way forward in the pandemic era is for us to make and take bold decisions. The budget can’t be just to appease the 21 per cent of the electorate that voted in the Government. It is the responsibility of the Government to present a budget that appeases to the other 79 per cent that just did not go out to vote in the last general election.
There is an even greater cause for scrutiny of the budget as to why most of the funding for social programmes has to be channelled through local government, which lacks probity, transparency and accountability. Like night follows day, when budgets of these configurations are presented, the real budget is generally revealed in the supplementary estimates.
FERNANDEZ SMITH Former JLP Councillor