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Monthly Archives: June 2012

Barbados 2012 Budget Presented

Hon. Christopher Sinckler, Minister of Finance and Economic Affiars, Barbados

Hon. Christopher Sinckler, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Barbados

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The Barbados government has maintained the 17.5 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) but has announced some partial tax relief for citizens as Finance Minister Chris Sinckler outlined the government’s fiscal policy for the next 12 months on Tuesday night.

In a presentation lasting just over four hours, Sinckler also announced a 50 per cent excise tax on gasoline and diesel, a partial restoration of allowances to workers, insisting that the budget was aimed at restoring, repairing and rebuilding an ailing economy.

Download 2012 Budget Statement | Continue reading →

LIAT Estimates Losses at 35 Million EC Dollars

LIAT

LIAT

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – The regional airline LIAT on Thursday put preliminary estimates of its losses from Sunday’s fire at EC$35 million (US$12.9 million) said.

According to a statement issued by LIAT spokesman Desmond Brown, the figure amounted to insured losses. The estimate comes two days after loss adjusters visited the site of the fire at the airline’s Antigua headquarters. Continue reading →

OECS Leaders Confirm Appointments for Two Top Posts within Sub-regional Grouping

Dr. The Hon. Ralph E. Gonsalves

Dr. The Hon. Ralph E. Gonsalves

KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent (CMC) – Leaders of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) have approved the appointments of a new Chief Justice and the person to head the sub-region’s civil aviation.

OECS Chairman and host Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves told a news conference that the name of the new head of the judiciary in the sub-region to replace Justice Hugh Rawlins, who demits office on July 31 after five years in the post, would not be made public at this time. Continue reading →

Fourth Grenada Cabinet Reshuffle

Grenada PM Hon. Tillman Thomas

Hon. Tillman Thomas

ST.GEORGE’S, Grenada (CMC) – A senior cabinet member has been moved to her her fourth ministry since the National Democratic Congress (NDC) came into government four years ago.

Glynis Roberts, MP for the St George’s South riding, is one of two ministers affected in Prime Minister Tillman Thomas’s fourth cabinet reshuffle in as many years. Continue reading →

MP Urging Jamaica To Leave CARICOM

Karl Samuda

Karl Samuda

KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC)– Opposition parliamentarian, Karl Samuda, the former commerce minister who has called for Jamaica to leave the Caribbean Community and described the regional bloc’s single market as a “hallucination”, has now called for a bipartisan review of Kingston’s relationship with the grouping.

“There should be a bipartisan panel to look into the Treaty of Chaguaramas (under which CARICOM was established), with special emphasis on the natural endowments of each territory, to determine how to go forward,” said Samuda, the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) spokesman on Transport and Works and Infrastructure Development. Continue reading →

PM Gonsalves Cautions Against Reversal in OECS

Dr. The Hon. Ralph E. Gonsalves

Dr. The Hon. Ralph E. Gonsalves

KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent (CMC) – Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves is warning against a reversal of progress within the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).

“We have been proceeding on the assumption that because we are making progress it is always inevitable,” Gonsalves said at the opening of the 55th Meeting of the OECS Authority on Sunday night.

“I don’t want us to think that we cannot suffer reversals. Continue reading →

St. Lucia PM Disappointed with Opposition Bi-partisanship Break

Dr. Kenny Anthony, St. Lucia Prime Minister

Dr. Kenny Anthony, St. Lucia Prime Minister

CASTRIES, St. Lucia (CMC)– Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony has expressed disappointment with the opposition United Workers Party (UWP) decision to withdraw from bi-partisanship support in parliament over a raft of dismissals of Castries City Council contract workers.

Last week, Opposition Leader Stephenson King announced the UWP was withdrawing its support for joint parliamentary initiatives, including the proposed oversight committee on the Value Added Tax (VAT) system which is to come into effect here on September 1. Continue reading →

Grenada Prime Minister Says Money Came From BVI

Grenada PM Hon. Tillman Thomas

Hon. Tillman Thomas

ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada (CMC) – Grenada’s Prime Minister Tillman Thomas has confirmed that he had received a 50-thousand US dollar political donation from an unidentified source in the British Virgin Islands.

The prime minister, whose administration has been rocked in the last month by internal wrangling and rumours of wrangling followed by a bruising parliamentary battle against an opposition no-confidence vote, said in a statement issued late on Wednesday that the donor did not wish to be identified for a contribution to the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) five months ago. Continue reading →

Opposition Defers on No-Confidence Vote – For Now

Opposition Leader Lester Bird

Opposition Leader Lester Bird

ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC)- A much-anticipated vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer and his United Progressive Party (UPP) government failed to materialise in Parliament on Wednesday as Opposition Leader Lester Bird retired for the day feeling unwell.

The opposition Antigua Labour Party (ALP) had long signalled its intent to move a vote of no confidence against the Spencer administration, but when the sun set on the day’s proceedings the house adjourned indefinitely. Continue reading →