VAT… Vextatious Added Tax

One ah the reason why ah ain’t write nothing bout VAT yet is because ah ain’t overs what it all about. Ah check the dictionary and it got only two VAT in dey, de VATican in Rome and the VAT as in ah rum cast. Lie-Za say that dey fooling we say that VAT is Value Added Tax, what Value on whose Tax, dey not interested in Adding Value to Agriculture, but dey like hurry, hurry bird to meet dead-line to Add Value to Tax, she swear that VAT mean ah piece ah Viciously Added Tax. {{more}}

VAT means more revenue foh the Guv-ah-mint which is not ah crime since everybody will contribute! The problem is, who will feel it most? De Poor, de lickle Man. All those people whose salary was below $12,000 ah year and didn’t pay Tax, will pay it at the stores and at the Utility Services. In Dominica the VAT on Electricity bill is 15%. That is just ah indicator.

So what can we do bout VAT? Plenty! Begin by getting you taste buds adjusted again to more local foods and locally manufactured products. There will be no VAT on Yams, Breadfruit, Bananas, Carrots, Fish and so on. As ah matter ah fact we can even do better by planting-up whatever lickle garden space round de house; ah dollar save is two dollars earned. And when done dey want to put Agriculture in the back ah the vehicle.

REN-RICK AND CED-RICK ALL FOH AGRICULTURE

That is why ah was energized last week by two articles on Agriculture. Ren-Rick “Banana” Rose, ah do-no way mek he ain’t change his name from ah Rose to ah Fruit, ah Banana, he endorse-singing Agricul-ture as ah major player in our development. Hear how Ren-Rick put it “no amount of tourism or service industries will be able to save us. We will become a nation (Caribbean) of soul-less people, providing services, earning dollars only to become trapped in modern-day consumerism”. De Gospel! And another Rick this time Ced-Rick Harold add-in his two-sense bit sorry, ten-sense bit ah endorse-mint foh Agriculture. His is like Lamentation, “We have become, in other words, no longer major producers of primary products, but the importer of same from, of all places, the industrialized countries”, further on he says “We have a succession of political directorates who pay lip service to Agriculture and who build the people’s hopes on Technological Revolutions allowing us to leapfrog Agriculture”. Thanks fellars. Foh those who ain’t know, Ced-rick is Vincy, Carib descendant, now ah retired UWI Professor living in Jah-mek-her.

AH VINCY BUFFER PRODUCT

Ah will continue to blow ah shell foh Agriculture and people like Bro Andre “Bufferman Cleaners” Providence. Bufferman read one ah the labels on the wax products that he uses to mek the vehicle look shine, and saw that the main ingredient was from ah plant grown in Brazil. His scientific mind started to tick, and he figured that the Dasheen leaves could have the same properties. He contacted ah couple international funding Agencies and had our Dasheen leaves anal-lies. Guess what? The extract from the Dasheen turns out to be ah superior product. It is now all up to Bufferman to tek it from here. Ah got one problem Bufferman, ah love Calallo Soup, to be honest ah ain’t like de taste ah de eddoe and tannia leaves, ah prefer me Dasheen bush.

IS OTTLEY HALL DEATH DEAD

Lie-Za dey shouting foh Joy not Joy Browne or Joy Cato eh, Joy foh Ottley Hall, how the Ottley Hall Death to SACE is no longer alive, it dead! SACE or whoever Italian concern we owe foh Ottley Hall, write off the Death since October last year.

Ah can’t believe this one, Lie-Za got ah way she does blow people bubble, is nothing more than she get ah scoop that the Prime Minister in the UK and he got SACE to write off the Ottley Hall Death, so she want to blow the wind out ah the man Tail oops, Sale!.. But she’s adamant, she say not only Sin Vin Sin got Death Forgive-ness, Sin Kitts who did owe SACE foh ah ole boat, since October dey got ah write-off too “sign-or-die” (that’s Lie-Za’s latin).

But how credible is Lie-Za’s scoop? If that Death was forgiven since last year October, just before Elections, why didn’t de ULP use it to their advantage in the Calm-Pain. How could Guv-ah-mint hold ah Death Forgiveness Certificate in one hand, cover it up, and in the other hand wave ah (hurry) Report from the Commissioner of the Enquiry, even though the Enquiry was not finished. That was five months ago, the DPP was supposed to study this Report and lay charges. Something Fee-she going on, we welcome any Death Forgiveness, but if what Lie-Za say is true, then “Is more in de Martah dan de pissle”!

And with that ah gone again.

One Love Bassy!