St. George,
Grenada, March 10th, 2010: Leader
of the Opposition, and Parliamentary
Representative for St. George North
West, Dr. the Rt. Hon. Keith
Mitchell says he is fully convinced
that the Government is on the wrong
track as it relates to VAT and
condemns their approach which seems
to be ‘a fix as we go along
approach’. He said this seems to be
the Government’s approach to
Governance and will lead to nothing
but destruction and failure.
Dr.
Mitchell believes that the
Government did everything possible
to exclude him from the debate on
the imposition of VAT knowing that
he will represent the views of the
people. He notes that the effort to
push VAT down the throats of the
people has resulted in more and more
hardship. Dr. Mitchell is calling on
the members of Government to take a
trip around the Tri-island State to
see what VAT has been doing to the
people.
According to Dr. Mitchell, it is
quite clear that when he held the
Office of Prime Minister, he ensured
that the process of implementing the
VAT was a slow one in which every
effort was being made to engage all
Grenadians. He said more
importantly, his Government was
closely monitoring the world economy
as one of the indicators it intended
to use to determine the best time to
implement VAT. “This is precisely
why we took a decision to postpone
the implementation of the VAT in
2008.” According to Dr. Mitchell it
is instructive to note that the NDC
took a decision to implement VAT at
a time when the economy is far worse
than it was then and at a time when
the state of the economy is being
described as catastrophic.
Meanwhile, the former Prime Minister
is calling on the Government to
immediately consider the removal of
VAT on burial and other services.
He said too many persons who are
already mourning the passing of
their families are finding it
impossible to access the additional
finances to give a decent burial to
their loved ones. According to Dr.
Mitchell, the NDC must immediately
go back to the drawing board where
VAT is concerned or else the people
will find it impossible to survive.
Opposition Leader Dr. the Hon. Keith Mitchell
speaking in Parliament March 9th,
2010This text will be replaced
