NDP promises to give year-end bonuses from CBI income

The New Democratic Party (NDP) insists that there is a cost-of-living crisis in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), and party leader, Dr Godwin Friday said they will immediately address this if they are to form government.

Among the fixes being proposed are a reduction in the Value Added Tax (VAT), VAT from 16 per cent to 13 percent; VAT free days; and the allocation in the Budget on an annual basis, provisions for the paying of year-end bonuses to all public servants and persons on public assistance from income generated by a Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme. Friday said a NDP administration also will undertake a review of the customs and port charges.

Friday made these commitments on Sunday, October 13, 2024 in Petit Bordel, at the open session of the party’s convention.

He said the Unity Labour Party (ULP) administration, under the leadership of Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, has failed the people of SVG and are out of touch. He said that people are no better off than they were 23 years ago when the ULP took office.

“St Vincent and the Grenadines has gone backwards under the ULP. Unemployment is high, crime is high, wages are low and the young people of this country face a bleak future,” the Opposition Leader told the gathering at the convention site.

He said people all over the country are complaining about the cost of living and on a weekly basis, price of basic products in the supermarkets are on the increase.

The NDP leader said the government is out of touch with the situation, and that can be seen in the increase in vehicle and other taxes last year.

He said the NDP’s first budget, if they are to hold the reigns of government, will put in place the mechanism to reduce the VAT.

“We will also review the customs duties and the port charges and reduce and eliminate them where possible. This will also make things cheaper…” the Opposition Leader said.

He added that every public servant can look forward to receiving year-end bonuses.

“…police officers, teachers, nurses, all the public servants. We will pay year end bonuses to these persons and not for them only, for all the people who are on public assistance, they will also have bonuses when the time comes in our Budget,” the parliamentary representative for the Northern Grenadines said, while stressing that these initiatives will help ease the cost of living crisis.

“It is not rocket science, don’t tell me we can’t do it because they doing it St. Kitts, they doing it in Dominica, and the reason they can do it is because they have a Citizenship by Investment Programme that pays for it,” Friday pointed out.

He said the CBI programme will be properly monitored, and the money will go into the pockets of the citizens, and that VAT free shopping days will also put money back into people’s pockets.

“Before you go back to school, there will be days that you will shop and you will pay no VAT, that is 16 percent off, and those days- we will have them around Christmas time as well so that those persons can shop and they don’t pay VAT,” the NDP leader told those gathered at the Petit Bordel Playing Field.

He told them the ULP argues that if the VAT is reduced it will put a hole in the government’s coffers, but that is not the case, because the government in Saint Lucia did it without affecting its coffers.

The Opposition leader charged that the ULP administration is borrowing too much money and that is not how to build an economy.

He said agriculture needs to be rebuilt with a modern touch, and farmers should believe in the NDP as the party believes in farmers and the role they have to play in building the economy. Friday also said the NDP will build proper feeder roads, provide markets for local produce, and security to eliminate praedial larceny.