Anthony Boatswain

St. George, Grenada, March 10th, 2010: Former Minister for Finance Hon. Anthony Boatswain is calling on the Government to take urgent action to provide relief from the depressing impact of the Value Added Tax (VAT).  He said despite being warned by the NNP that the timing was not right for the implementation of the VAT, the Government proceeded to impose a 15% tax on the people in time of a recession.  The result being that more and more Grenadians are finding it impossible to meet their basic financial obligations.  

Boatswain believes that Government is pursuing the wrong economic policy option by implementing the VAT at this time.  “Rather than focusing only on the collection of revenue the Government needs to focus on stimulating and stabilizing the economy.”  He said since the imposition of the VAT the spending power of ordinary Grenadians have been severely affected placing more Grenadians on the poverty line.  He said what government needs to do to get us out of this situation is to create the right environment for new investments and to reinstate a number of the safety net programmes which were removed or significantly reduced since the NDC administration took office in 2008.  

Boatswain added that the Opposition is not opposed to the VAT in principle but remains convinced that the timing is bad.  According to Sen. Boatswain, in a recession, rather than increase taxes, Government should move to relax taxes and generate more spending power.  “When we proposed the introduction of the Value Added Tax, the economy was growing by 4.5% then, no way will I support the introduction of a Value Added Tax when our economy is going backward.”  explained Boatswain.  He further explained that the policy of the government makes no sense since the reduction in spending power will reduce the amount of revenue which can be collected from VAT. 

The Opposition therefore calls on the Government to move speedily to reduce the pressure which most Grenadians now face since the imposition of the Value Added Tax on February 1st 2010.

Senator Anthony Boatswain on GBN Radio "to the point" programme, March 9th, 2010