- SVG Budget 2024: Disconnected from Reality: Friday
St Vincent Opposition Leader, Godwin Friday, has branded the 2024 budget as ‚deceptive and lacking relevance to the actual circumstances of people’s lives‘.
In his response to the budget of 1.6 million laid out by Finance Minister Camilo Gonsalves on Friday, January 9th, he expressed that there is a disparity between the Minister’s presentation and beliefs, and the perception of the general population.
In his presentation, Friday raised concerns about the government’s prioritisation of large-scale projects and its implications for the well-being of individuals.
“What matters is that the budget as a serious document ought to signal to the people of this country that we understand our predicament, we know what you are feeling.“ “ Never-mind in the rarified atmosphere here in the Parliament and in the offices of the ministers and so forth, they may not be able to appreciate it in a direct way, but they must have information as to what’s happening on the ground and then send a signal to the people in this country that relief is on the way. „That is a missed opportunity in this budget that was presented“, Friday said.
Friday, while referring to various components of the budget such as the surplus capital revenues, stated that the government has not provided evidence of its ability to generate revenue in the long term. This suggests that the balanced appearance of the budget may be a result of an accounting manipulation. “It is counterfeit,” Friday declared.
“The 245 million dollars in excess capital receipts are merely an accounting trick to enable the Minister to cover up the 235.1 million dollars in the overall deficit.“ „So, you can present the budget as though it’s balanced, even though the money will not be collected.“
Friday highlighted St Vincent’s National Debt, which amounts to 2.44 billion dollars, and highlighted the rising interest rates and lending fees linked to the debt.
“The overall debt of the country is 2.44 billion dollars. This is in the Estimates at page 848. What is alarming and what is concerning, Madame Speaker, is that the payment of interests and loan charges is increasing. The minister could probably explain why that is the case, but between 2023 where you paid 80.2 million dollars in interests and fees and charges, in 2024, that goes up to 107 million dollars. That is an increase of 26.9 million dollars, or over 33 percent in one year.“
“That is a tremendous cost that is imposed on the treasury. It creates a serious problem for us, keeping debt-servicing-costs high and the debt-burden heavy. Debt servicing now takes 34 cents out of every dollar. When I came to this Parliament, it was around 24 cents out of every dollar of current revenue and we are running a current account deficit now”.
Friday said he expects his presentation to be labelled as boring and insignificant, but he hopes the government will find it useful.
