Revenue generating projects will do little to raise growth rate: MP Maynard

An opposition parliamentarian says the 2019 Budget presented by Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris last December lacks revenue generating projects and will do little to improve a declining growth rate.

The St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party Member of Parliament for West Basseterre, Hon. Konris Maynard has also warned that Dr. Harris will soon have to impose new taxes due to dwindling revenues from the Citizenship By Investment Programme which he has crippled since taking office in February 2015.

"There is little or no emphasis on economic projects aimed at raising the growth rate over the long term," said Maynard.

Since taking office in 2015, the growth rate in St. Kitts and Nevis has declined from six percent in 2014 to an estimated 2.7 percent in 2018.

Dr. Harris has also blocked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from publishing the Article IV Consultation following the visit of an IMF Mission to St. Kitts and Nevis in July 2018.

Maynard cautioned that the projects that have been allocated in the 2019 Budget are about either improving office accommodation, such as the renovation of government buildings, aimed at achieving political visibility, constructing a new police station in Sandy Point, resurfacing roads or providing political handouts, such as the Poverty Alleviation Programme (PAP).

He said Prime Minister Harris is relying on just a handful of capital construction projects to provide jobs.

"Is this his jobs and growth agenda? Resurfacing a road here and putting some paint on a building there? These types of jobs are just one-off, temporary, minimum wage jobs that cannot sustain a family given the high cost of living in St. Kitts and Nevis," said the first-term opposition MP, who further asked: "Where are the major investment projects or increases in the allocation to the potential growth enhancing sectors of the economy such as small business development, agriculture and information technology and communications?"

He stressed that renovating a government building or resurfacing a road does not create any multiplier effect that brings anything back into the economy to grow it.

"These are all just expenditures plain and simple. Where are the revenue-generating projects? Where are the job-generating jobs that will put our high school and university graduates to work and grow our middle-class?" he asked.

Maynard said Dr. Harris' constant public refrain of 'surpluses, surpluses, surpluses' is "is entirely due to estimated revenue from the Citizenship By Investment Programme" and, based on Harris' own projections outlined in his Budget Estimates, "CBI revenues will be slashed in half, dropping from EC$230 million to EC$120 million in 2020 and EC$100 million in 2021."

"So dog eat we super here in St. Kitts and Nevis if the Harris administration is not removed soon and quick," said Maynard, who further pointed out that the bleak economic performance will only lead significant taxes imposed by Dr. Harris on the citizens and residents.

"It is you the tax payers who will have to pay for the impending deficits. Why do you think Harris is boasting that under his administration Inland Revenue has increased its collection more than ever before? Although he may not be taxing you directly, he is certainly imposing heavy taxation in indirect ways such generating taxes by issuing more traffic tickets, imposing fees for late payments and increasing licensing fees, etc. The people are the ones who will feel it," Maynard said.

The Timothy Harris Government recently boasted it collected over EC$2 million from issuing tickets for traffic offences in 2018.