Barbadians can expect some good news from Government in a few weeks, as Prime Minister Mia Mottley seeks to help residents better cope with rising food and energy prices.
Hinting at the introduction of more medium-term measures and the promised review of the cap on the Value Added Tax (VAT) on fuel at the pumps, Mottley said a Social Partnership committee was established this week to look at how households can be further shielded to prevent them from buckling under the pressure of dramatically increasing costs.
“As it relates to the very immediate, as in tomorrow, next week and next month, we are going to still have to provide some level of shielding,” she said as she recalled the capping of VAT on gas and diesel at 14 cents per litre in mid-March.
“We tried to shield you by not taking as much taxes and capping that. Regrettably, we are going to have to look at it again. As recent as Monday, we set up a committee within our Social Partnership to look at the underlying increases in food and fuel costs with an understanding that within two weeks there would also be labour, private sector, and government meeting, such that on July 8 when we meet back, we put ourselves in a position to take decisions that will help families in this country, particularly since the summer vacation is coming and we all know that children love to eat a lot of food when they are running about,” the Prime Minister said.
Mottley said unless families can be helped in the near term then things could get worse for many.
“We may have to use the school meals programme and other things to continue doing that which they do during the term, in order to offset some of the initial things, but it is going to need policy space and it is going to need fiscal space,” she said.
She said while authorities have been “thinking outside of the box” to address issues relating to the housing stock, coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion, and the island’s renewable energy needs, “there is no doubt that our people are consumed now with how to cope . . . how to cope with the increased food prices, the increased fuel prices, all of these things”.
Mottley said it was therefore critical for the administration to continue doing what is necessary to help people manage while allowing the Government to meet its medium-term adaptation goals.
Mottley was speaking on Friday during a high-level International Monetary Fund (IMF) panel discussion on Building Resilience and Sustainability in the Caribbean, against the backdrop of the Washington-based financial institution making funds available under its recently established instrument, the Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST).
“We have tried to think outside of the box, but in order to do so, we need fiscal space and we need policy space. We need policy space that allows us to protect our farmers so that we don’t have people flooding our markets with cheap produce, while at the same time if there are supply disruption problems as we are now seeing that produce is not available to our people,” she said.
“Secondly, we need to be able to ensure that we can treat to our water issues in a credible way because if we don’t reduce the level of non-revenue water it makes no sense trying to augment water because if half of what you are pumping goes into the ground then you have problems. But we have to be able, at the same time, to give people immediate access to water and to keep it affordable.
“Thirdly, we need to ensure that we wean our people immediately off of fossil fuels while at the same time giving them an opportunity to earn money. The revolution in renewable energy must be that. It must not be seen as something that consolidates wealth either domestically or allows for a dilution of wealth because of people coming in with foreign capital,” the Prime Minister added.
Mottley said it was for that reason her administration had embarked on the Home Ownership Providing Energy (HOPE) project which will allow for the “partnering of the revolution in renewable energy” with that of housing.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb
