Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has defended the decision of her administration to table the Labour Clauses Concessions Bill, saying the government foregoes approximately BDS$750 million (One BDSS=US$0.50 cents) in revenue annually, as a result of tax concessions.
The bill, which is to be debated in the House of Assembly this week, seeks to establish minimum rates and conditions for workers, which companies benefiting from tax concessions should adhere to.
Speaking at a branch meeting of her ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP), Prime Minister Mottley said her government is simply legislating what has existed under the collective bargaining agreement with labour unions and hoteliers for the past 60 years.
She dismissed suggestions the legislation may act as a deterrent to foreign investors.
“Government revenue is coming at about BDS$3.2 billion. So if you are effectively giving away BDS$750 million. Some of these concessions go back to (prime ministers) Errol Barrow and Tom Adams time.
“So this is a continuum and all the government is saying that these are subsidies. A concession is a subsidy and if you are going to get a subsidy from the taxpayers and we are not going to be able to spend that money directly on the very same taxpayers then you have a duty to treat them fairly.”
Mottley said it was important to ensure that there is a minimum “below which you cannot go”.
She said Barbados is a country “where we have known what it is to have people be the source of people’s profits through exploitation. It cannot be acceptable in an independent Barbados for us to agree that any worker must now be able to fuel on by their…underpayment or under treatment, the competitiveness or the profitability of any hotel in this country.
“That is all the government is saying,” she told the party supporters.
The government is expected to easily pass the legislation controlling 29 of the 30 seats in the Parliament.
On Monday, former government legislator, Ralph Thorne was sworn in as Opposition leader after leaving the government.
Following his appointment he told reporters “people are instinctively opposing the government in the public domain…of the legislation it is bringing to Parliament from week to week”.
Source- CMC
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