The budget will be debated on Thursday 25th and Friday the 26th March. And while the opposition and the government will thrash out the figures and the features of the budget at that time. But today PUP Deputy Leader Mark Espat had his snap response and –“spoiler alert” – he wasn’t impressed.
Hon. Mark Espat, PUP Deputy Leader
“This is a case where the patient is on the operating table haemorrhaging and instead of giving the economy blood, the Prime Minister seems to be taking away blood from the ailing patient. Clearly this formula can’t work. The Prime Minister is saying that on the one hand, the relief measures he is offering are valued at a little over $10 million but on the other hand, what is being asked from businesses and individuals is a whopping $110 million increase in project revenue; $42 from a 25% increase – from 10% to 12.% in GST alone not to mention the others and so I think it has been proven time and time again that when an economy is contracting that the last thing you want to do is increase taxes. That will only deepen the cycle of contraction and I believe worsen the lack of confidence.”
Jules Vasquez,
“The social measures will mitigate and also the increasing the threshold on taxable earnings will have a mitigating effect on the patient as you call it.”
Hon. Mark Espat,
“Well Jules the Prime Minister always grandstands, he always has a surplus of words but apparent and obvious deficits in good and services. Again it is important to go to the bottom line; what is being given and what is being taken and even after all the smoke and mirrors, the net take is $100 million in additional income, in net taxes, a net increase of $52 million.”
And while Espat took on the PM’s budget, he surprisingly didn’t take part in the debate on the bills in the banking sectors. We say surprisingly because he was the one who raised the alarm about it in the media last week. But today – he wasn’t the one speaking up – it was the current party leader and the former party leader who the Prime Minister likened to a jack. We’ll have that very fiery exchange later on.
