PM revisit VAT and Customs

“de country is in trouble”! Basically what de article said was dat foh de first quarter ah 2011, Guv-ah-mint, Customs and Income Tax departments collected in revenue and grants $98 million dis year compared to $104 million last year.{{more}} And we spent $127 million as compared to $117 million foh de same periods last year.

In simple Rick-me-tick, foh de first three months dis year, de difference between de $98 m we collect and de $127 m. we spend is $29 million; in street language we spend $29 million dat we didn’t collect, we down in de minus!

Interestingly, in accounts de colour foh minus is (ULP) Red, Lie-Za say she making she own sticker, one dah say “We $29 million in de Red and We Naar Tun Back”!

De hopeful side ah de Eke-con-me is dat de PM is anticipating dat by December 2011, de first stabilization will recur.

Don’t be surprised if dat date is shifted to December 2012 like how de Airport completion date keep shifting.

Ah keep saying, why dey won’t stop announcing these unrealistic dates when de Airport will be completed. Opt-is-him is one thing but Real-is-him is another.

While de Airport promises hope in de darkest hour, de LIAT airfares, except foh dis week is ah monster!

People come-plane dat de Miami to T’n’T leg is de same or less dan de T’n’T to SVG’s leg, ah can’t believe, will somebody at LIAT please check dat out.

Ah feel dat if and when dey check foh one ah de reasons why de Revenue is down, dey will see dat visitors arrival is down too, and LIAT, who after forty years and still can’t get it to-gather, is to blame.

Yes, and dey will discover also, dat one ah de reasons why Revenue is down, is because Imports are down. And when dey check why Imports down, dey will discover dat Importers are having de time ah dey life at de Customs.

Whom-so-ever Lie-Za was talking to, told her dat de order from de Big Man is to “collect his Rev-on-yuh or else”! And to mek sure dat nobody could soft-soak de officers, dey all get ah bone-us at de end-ah-year, dat bone-us is based on Rev-on-yuh.

But while dey trying to collect every drop ah water coming thru de de pipe, CWSA locking off de supply, merchants importing less! Den de VAT continues to have its devastating effect.

One importer told Lie-Za when she was hoping to get some kind ah concessions dat allows for payments in installment on ah particular shipment, she had to fork-up all de fees one time. Fees plus cost and freight drove her over-draft facility over one hundred thousand dollars, dah’s ah lot ah money. She is saying dat if things don’t change, dat shipment will be her very last. She begging to see de Con-troller but can’t get thru.

De story at Customs is dat de PM done outline de Rules to dem. Rule number one: “de boss say so! Rule number two, if de boss ain’t say so, den read over Rule number one”; Revenue is de bottom line. After dat de Con-troller hand, foot, head, between his legs an’all tie-up!

DE LICKLE CONTRIBUTIONS COUNT

Monday night de phone rang, de wife answered, and from the time she went straight into creole asking de caller: “Girl, way yuh day…ah don’t believe yuh”, ah know Debbie’s in town, and when she’s in town, de kids go wild. Dey have not seen her for de last five years but gleefully remember her playing “Coop” oops, dat’s “Hide ‘n’seek” wid dem. When dey were babies yuh would just hear dem scream, was either Debbie pull de baby bottle out dey mouth or tek ah bite off dey bread.

Debbie and my wife go way back, de two ah dem SJCM ole girls, would be like Lie-Za and me, real tight. She plays “all fools day” pranks all year round; like ten o-clock one night, she called Johannes at Belmont, to come pick her up at de Airport, he didn’t know to dial back de “caller’s number” check way she dey, it was not until de Airport close down he knew way go down.

We however checked “caller ID” to mek sure she dey hey. She resides in Canada now and has moved on after doing her pen-ants wid Sis Pat, foh over twenty years faithfully serving at Marriaqua Convent School, (SJCM).

Incidentally two weeks ago marked six years since Sis Pat left us, not ah drum was heard, how quickly we forget de janitors, de cooks, de principals.

How many ah we Grammar School Boys remember dat legendary, Miss Emily de school’s janitor in de 40’s, 50’s and 60’s who saved many ah lives wid her mauby and cakes. So ah want to big-up Debbie, she was Sis Pat’s side-kick, she ran de Tuck Shop well, served good, affordable meals to students and staff. Once in ah while when ah wuk in de area, ah uses to pass in to get a hotel lunch wid baked chicken, salad and pie wid ah juice foh three dollars.

We look back at how Secondary Education has come a long way, it was also ah Rev-all-yuh-shun when heroes like Doc Eustace, Timmy Richards, de Catholics and Anglican, opened de gates to ah secondary education foh de poor country kids.

Teachers were paid small salaries from school fees, no help from Guv-ah-mint, so de lickle pennies from de Tuck Shop was important and dat’s why de lickle contribution from people like Miss Emily and Debbie is significant.

I gather dat she is now studying, actually she got her CXC subjects while wuking at de Tuck Shop. Enjoy yuh vacation Debbie, hope yuh students take yuh foh lunch. And wid dat is gone ah gone again.

One Love Bassy

Bassy Alexander is a land surveyor, folklorist and social commentator.