PM Draws Link between Paying Taxes and Borrowing Abroad - June 4, 2002

by Earl Bousquet

In the past week, the Prime Minister returned from Kuwait announcing more money for roads and offering a lesson on taxes and loans; the Tourism Minister helped save the homes of 24 Pavee residents from possible demolition; the Foreign Affairs Minister attended the OAS General Assembly in Barbados; the ECTEL headquarters was formally launched; Cable & Wireless showed local business executives how their enterprises could save with the new telephone rates; the Anti Crime Commission completed its national survey; the Caribbean Energy Forum was launched here -- as well as the 2002 Carnival and Hurricane seasons.

Prime Minister Dr Kenny D. Anthony called a press conference Monday morning, at which he reported having made financial arrangements that will result in almost $30 million worth of assistance for road development over the next year or two.

Dr Anthony, who led a technical mission that included Communications and Works Minister Felix Finnisterre, said an agreement had been made for $9.8 million to fund road development between Gros Islet and the Vigie Roundabout. The agreement will be formally signed next month when the Director General of the Kuwaiti Fund visits St. Lucia.

The PM also secured an agreement in principle for another $20 million worth of assistance for development of community roads across the island and explained why loans from the Kuwaiti Fund were the most attractive for St. Lucia and the other OECS territories that have also sent missions to the oil rich Arab state.

Asked during the press conference why the government had to borrow large sums externally to fix, maintain and build roads, the Prime Minister said there was a nexus between payment of taxes and having to borrow externally.

He pointed out that it would take $500 million to keep the entire national road network in shape, which was not available in a lump sum at any one time.

But with government being cheated of $70 million in tax revenues last year through various mechanisms and people generally unwilling to pay their taxes, he said, the pressure on the Treasury forced the government to have to borrow externally for financing for road development and other national projects.

On Tuesday, the Prime Minister delivered the feature address at the launching of the headquarters of the Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority (ECTEL) at Choc, where he once again explained the details and rationale behind the collective agreement the islands had with Cable & Wireless before the new rates were approved.

St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas and Vincentian Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves also attended the session, which was addressed by ECTEL Chairman Senator Calixte George and other officials.

Just a few days earlier, Cable & Wireless and the St. Lucia Chamber of Commerce hosted a luncheon at which local businessmen were made au current with the company’s new phone rates and how they will affect their businesses.

The company’s executives had randomly selected the past bills of some private sector businesses and applied the new rates to show where and how they would save under the new regime. The company admitted that charges had gone up for one aspect of the service to business houses, but pointed out that the savings on all other charges would add up to a positive result.

The business executives, unable to argue with the figures, decided to await their first set of bills under the new tariff structure.

Tourism Minister Philip J. Pierre returned home Sunday from attending the annual Caribbean Hotel Industry Conference (CHIC) in New York, where popular local hotelier, Chef Harry, received a prize for his contribution to the development of the industry here.

Before leaving last Tuesday, the minister brokered an arrangement with the legal firm of Kenneth Monplaisir to save the homes of 24 Upper Pavee families, which were to have been demolished by courts order anytime as of May 31.

The deal, which the lawyer agreed to on behalf of the absentee owners, allows the residents more time, as they had apparently been inveigled in to paying rent to someone who did not own the land.

While the legal entanglements are untied, the tenants and their future will be determined in accordance with efforts to ensure the innocent victims are not treated unfairly in the execution of the court’s order, which also upheld the ownership of the land by Mr Monplaisir’s clients.

Foreign Affairs Minister Senator Julian R. Hunte last weekend attended the annual General Assembly of the Organisation of American States (OAS), which took place in Barbados.

Before leaving the island last week, Mr Hunte told a local reporter that St. Lucia did not share the position of the United States on Cuba, as Caricom pursued a policy of engagement with the Caribbean island in the search for wider Caribbean integration.

He said the position of the US, as adumbrated by President Bush, was “intransigent” and “unfortunate” and expressed the hope that it would change after the full report by former President Jimmy Carter is made public.

Mr Hunte said “it is hoped that the embargo against Cuba will eventually be lifted.”

The Anti Crime Commission last week indicated it had completed a national survey on crime patterns and responses, as part of its continuing assessments to feed strategies for combating crime in a methodical and scientific manner based on microscopic examination of the realities on the ground.

The survey was completed long before last Friday night’s incident in which two of three boys walking together were attacked. One died soon after and a second was hospitalized. The third is being held for questioning.

The three boys, said to have been friends, were aged between 14 and 16 and while details of exactly what happened are still not publicly known, the usual debate that follows such an act began this week on radio and TV, with callers and talk show hosts alike begging the questions: What’s wrong? And what’s to be done?

World No Tobacco Day was observed last Friday and here too another shocking revelation was made by local health officials regarding smoking trends among students. Mr Edward Emmanuel of the Bureau of Health offered the following statistics: 35% of students surveyed attending Grades 6 to 9 and Forms 1 to 4 have smoked; and 10% of the rest say they are inclined to start smoking within the next 12 months.

Mr Emmanuel said there was also a link between smoking and AIDS, warning that persons who were HIV Positive and smoked had a much greater chance of getting full-blown AIDS than those who don’t smoke.

The Folk Research Centre (FRC) and the St. Lucia National Trust (SLNT) earlier this week both launched activities to generate interest in their ongoing activities. The FRC planned a major discussion on the origins of Rastafari in St. Lucia for tonight, while the Trust launched a year of activities aimed at reinforcing its membership.

The search for alternative energy sources for the Caribbean continued here in a big way over the past weekend, with the launching of the Caribbean Energy Forum. Vishnu Tulsie, the local energy specialist at the Ministry of Planning, said the forum was established to help promote the islands’ search for energy alternatives, be they from heat pump, wind, geothermal, solar or otherwise. He said it was aimed at encouraging partnerships between European and Caribbean energy organizations to allow for partnerships in joint energy projects.

St. Lucians took up senior managerial positions at the top of two major private sector entities in St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the grenadines this past week. Cable & Wireless announced the appointment of Mr Fred Walcott as General Manager of it’s operations in the neighbouring island chain and the Sandals Halcyon this week started under the new leadership of St. Lucian Mr Lenox Dupal as General Manager.

Popular St. Lucian designer Shazi Chalon last week led a contingent of local entertainers to Martinique for launching of his new designs in the French island market. His presentation was accompanied by the display of a large slice of St. Lucian cultural entertainment, which the host mayor of the town of St Pierre said was the best cultural observance so far of the 100th anniversary of the eruption of Mount Pelee, which, local legend has it, took the lives of over 30,000 and left only two survivors.

St. Lucia Carnival 2002 was launched last Sunday at Mindoo Philip Park, where Executive Director of the Cultural Development Foundation (CDF) Mr Teddy Francis unveiled plans for a safer, more meaningful and more enjoyable carnival this year.

This year’s carnival will be the first organized by the new entity that replaced the Cultural Department of the former Ministry of Community Development and the National Carnival Development Committee (NCDC) as the main organizer of the annual national festival, with funding from the new Ministry of Social Transformation.

However, while all’s well and sunny at the moment, the CDF will also most likely be watching the weather as the celebrations gather steam in the weeks ahead, since the official launching took place one day after the official opening of the annual hurricane season, with the forecasters predicting more hurricanes and storms in our part of the world for 2002.

In the meantime, the calypso tents are ablaze with lyrics and rhythms as the singers start their annual battle for a prized car and $10,000 cash.

June 4, 2002

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