The government is investigating ways to raise additional revenue while keeping
expenditure in check, as preparations for the presentation of the annual National
Budget gather momentum.
On Wednesday, the Cabinet invited fifteen Officials to its meeting, to address the
issue of revenue, deficit spending, and recovery. Eight Officials from the Ministry
of Finance, three from the Inland Revenue, one from the Medical Benefits Scheme,
and three from the Antigua and Barbuda Department of Maritime Services
(ADOMS), along with the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance and
Corporate Governance, Senator Dwayne George.
It said the primary objective of the discussion was to consider options for the
budget, taking into account that the tax revenue to GDP ratio, stands at fifteen
percent and the target of the budget is to raise revenue to twenty percent. The
discussion revolved around items that can be zero-rated and those imported items
where the waiver of taxes is not warranted.
As part of these discussions, the Ministry of Finance Officials presented the debt
obligations owed by the Government to former employees in the form of gratuities,
to contractors, landlords, statutory corporations, China Exim Bank, Regional
Government Security Market (RGSM), Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and
the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB). The Inland Revenue Department
(IRD) discussed the issue of property taxes owed to the government by property
owners. The subsidy paid by the Government for petroleum products was also
discussed and a plan to discontinue that subsidy was also examined. Fuel tax, it
was agreed, falls below the regional average and it is one contributing factor that
can be easily remedied.
The discussions also included a look at the government’s purchase of gasoline for
its fleet of vehicles. Ways in which this may be reduced were also examined.
These discussions were held to assist the Finance Minister in preparing his budget
statement and budgetary figures, which will be shared with the public on Friday,
December 15 th at 9:30 am during the sitting of Parliament.
