Opposition Leader Mia Mottley leads her team to Parliament.
The Barbados Labour Party is not impressed by Government’s latest Budget.
While Leader of the Opposition Mia Mottley will give the official response tomorrow evening, BLP spokesman Indar Weir said Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler utterances during a three-hour presentation was akin to a vote of no-confidence in himself.
“I find it difficult to see many positives coming out of the budgetary proposals simply because the minister himself started out by saying there is absolutely no confidence in the economy,” the travel agency operator said.
Weir said given Government’s previous unflattering record in the hotel business, Sinckler’s announcement that in addition to Almond Beach Village, the closed Silver Sands Hotel would also be purchased, did not engender confidence.
This, he added, was especially when Government was finding it difficult to “close a deal” for the sale of the Four Seasons Project.
“I find it difficult to appreciate… I do not have a lot of confidence that we will be able to move forward on this,” he said.
Referring to the various tourism initiatives outlined by the minister, Weir said not only had a number of the programmes been previously announced, but even if they were successful, reduced airlift meant tourists would find it hard to travel to Barbados.
“Many of the initiatives in the Budget to my mind are very vague,” he said.
“There is only so much that people can carry without having increasing incomes and you are now asking income groups to carry the burden of that economy.” (SC)