‘We feel that this is the wrong time to impose new revenue measures…’

Without implementing any new taxes or increasing any existing taxes measure, the government of St Vincent and the Grenadines hopes to increase its allocations to various bodies in Budget 2025.

Presenting his address of the $1.85 billion Budget on Monday, January 13, 2025, Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves said the package represents a 14.4 per cent increase in the approved Budget for 2024. The 2025 Budget is made up of Current Expenditure of $913.3 million; and $237.4 million in Amortization and Sinking Fund contribution.

Capital Outlays in the 2025 Budget amount to $698.6 million, with $907.7 in Current Revenue and $941.5 million in Current Receipts.

Minister Gonsalves said there is an increase in Current Expenditure of 9.3 per cent in the 2025 Budget, and a Capital Expenditure increase of 22.5 per cent.

Included in the package is $1 million in subvention to the Carnival Development Corporation (CDC), up from $560,000 at present.

There is also a new initiative called the Future Athletic and Training Support Fund, which will be replenished each year with $ 250,000 for Vincentian athletes preparing for upcoming Olympic Games.

This fund will receive $1 million in direct government support over the next four years.

This year, public sector workers will receive the remaining 2.5 per cent wage increase previously negotiated with their bargaining units.

This increase is the final part of a seven per cent wage increase over a three year period.

The 2025 Budget “contains no new taxes, no new fees and no new changes to existing taxes or fees,” the finance minister stressed.

On the heels of massive spending and borrowing in the post eruption and post Hurricane Beryl period, Minister Gonsalves outlined the reason why this year’s Budget will not cause Vincentians to dig deeper into their pockets.

“We feel that this is the wrong time to impose new revenue measures” on the people of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG).

In the post disaster borrowing and spending,  the minister said the government was making “prudent investments in our future growth and development.”

“In the face of disaster, death and destruction, the government has an obligation to act. Every dollar of debt was well spent in the interest of the people of St Vincent and the Grenadines,” the finance minister stated.

Also included in this year’s Budget is funding for the modern Parliament and the Hall of Justice in Kingstown.

“This is a disaster response Budget.

“It is a climate change Budget.

“It is a resilience building Budget, Minister Gonsalves declared.

He added that Budget 2025 “ cannot afford to be anything other than a Budget that responds to the needs and vulnerability of our country and our people after repeated batterings.”

He pointed out that SVG has suffered $1.6 billion in damage and loss from Hurricanes Elsa and Beryl, and also from the eruptions of La Soufriere Volcano.