Antigua Opposition Dismisses Budget Proposals

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ST JOHN’S, Antigua, Jan 22 2016 – The leader of the main opposition United Progressive Party (UPP), Harold Lovell says new tax measures outlined in the 2016 national budget would make life harder for citizens of Antigua and Barbuda despite the announcement of the abolition of personal income tax from April this year.

All but one of the three opposition legislators boycotted the presentation of the EC$1.8 billion budget by Prime Minister Gaston Browne on Thursday and Lovell, a former finance minister said the increase in Revenue Recovery Charge (RRC) from 10 to 13 percent  would make life harder for residents.

Prime Minister Browne said the new measure would yield an additional EC$20 million in revenue.

Lovell said the government has not remained true to its original plan to reduce taxes overall.

“Now in terms of the abolition of personal income tax, when he argued in his paper that he would abolish personal income tax he did not say that he would increase any other tax.

“He said he would eliminate waste and by eliminating waste he would be able to abolish personal income tax. He has sown that at no time did he have confidence in his own words and that the theory that he put forward is a flawed theory, is a false doctrine.”

Debate on the budget will begin on February 1.