OPPOSITION LEADER Mia Mottley criticised Prime Minister David Thompson's budgetary proposals last night, saying that Barbadians were looking for relief, but instead they got mugged.

Mottley, who is to give her response in the House of Assembly today, charged that the Budget "extracts at least $104 million from the pockets of Barbadians through a range of measures, the immediate impact of which will be to raise further the cost of living".

"This is an IMF Budget that today even the IMF would have rejected as reckless in the current economic environment," Mottley said.

According to her: "The Prime Minister admitted that 'Barbadians are reeling under the impact of rising fuel and food prices'. This is largely a result of policies this Government sanctioned earlier this year when it recklessly removed subsidies and price controls designed to protect the vulnerable and productive sectors.

"Barbadians were looking for the Budget to offer them some relief, but instead the Prime Minister has tonight announced a Budget that takes a further BDS$104 million out of the pockets of Barbadians.

"The Prime Minister promises to put some of this money back, in a number of vague ways and speculative accounting, but the only thing certain and immediate is the tax take. Hard initiatives like the increase in welfare payments add just $200 000 back, a tiny fraction of the $104 million tax hike.

"To raise $46 million per year in highway taxes to cover $117 million for the highway project which is scheduled for repayment over 25 years is to punish the Barbadian public to make an unsavoury political point," the Opposition Leader charged.

"The Prime Minister offered us not just bad policies, but absent policies. He said nothing to address the fundamental, strategic issues facing Barbados. In a Budget that was too long and too little, he managed to say nothing about challenges of the Economic Partnership Agreement coming in 30 months, nothing about climate changes and nothing sensible about tourism and international business," Mottley said.

(HM)