The Democratic Labour Party Government (DLP) has poured cold water on money promises being made by the Barbados Labour Party (BLP).
Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler, the Democratic Labour Party candidate for St Michael North West, said yesterday that the BLP were not being forthright with the proposals revealed in part in a draft BLP manifesto a few weeks ago.
It said within the first six months if elected it would repeal the National Social Responsibility Levy (NSRL) and reintroduce free university education at the University of the West Indies, as well as to clear all government arrears, including an estimated $200 million owed to the UWI.
“Just by those few alone, you are either speaking about loss of, or expenditure of more than a billion Barbados dollars. So if the Barbados Labour Party has a billion Barbados dollars lying around somewhere that they can do this with, I believe that it is irresponsible of them to have not shared that money with the public of Barbados because we could have done with it a long time ago. But if you are talking about eliminating NSRL, paying a wages increase to public servants, restoring tuition fees and paying off all of Barbados’ arrears, then we’re talking maybe one or two billion Barbados dollars,” said Sinckler.
He was speaking after his annual pep talk to students of Deacons, Eagle Hall and St Stephen’s Primary Schools, all within the St Michael North West constituency for which he is the candidate in the May 24 General Election.
Sinckler advised the BLP to be forthright.
“People want to hear the truth. People want to hear realistic proposals, things that are doable not pie in the sky things that make everybody feel good. This is not about feel-good things, we’ve passed that stage and that type of politics don’t work.
“So if that is what they are proposing to do maybe they [BLP] will tell you how they will get it done but frankly I don’t see it. Even listening to it sounds ridiculous. Maybe there is a magic wand somewhere borrowed from Harry Potter . . . . We in the Democratic Labour Party don’t operate like that, we tell you straight what the programme is,” he said. (SDB Media)
