MP Lewis: Gaston Browne Refuses to Protect Our People From Gas Hikes In Spite of Record Tax Revenue

PRESS STATEMENT

It is an act of gross wickedness to suddenly impose higher gas prices on our people, at a time of record tax revenue collection.

Gaston Browne’s onslaught of tax increases and new taxes, coupled with his government’s boasts of record revenue collection, and savings, should have made protecting our people from today’s gas hikes the obvious decision.

The Prime Minister and his proxies have thus far boasted about:

– Weekly improvements in the tax collection rate

– Reductions in wasteful spending

– Capturing new revenue by cutting back on the $175 million per year in discretionary waivers

– A 21% year-on-year increase in Customs Duty collection, for January and February 2024

In addition, the Gaston-led Government imposed the ABST, to extract $50 million more from the people’s pockets every year, contrary to the PM’s election promise.

As if that wasn’t enough, we were blindsided by 3 new taxes in Budget 2024.

We can all clearly see that the Prime Minister is more than able to take meaningful action to “ease the squeeze”.

Gaston Browne simply refuses to use our tax dollars to protect families and small businesses from economic hardship.

I therefore urge our people not to be fooled by his excuses and deflections.

The consequences of exposing our people to this sudden gas hike would have been manifestly clear to any good leader: Our food prices and overall cost of living will be driven even higher, as the increased gas prices are passed on to consumers. And this will cause consumer spending to fall even further, as our families are forced to put less food on the dinner table.

Our people simply cannot absorb this gas price increase, in the current high cost of living and high unemployment climate, which was needlessly created by Gaston Browne’s broken promises and economic incompetence.

Regrettably, we have a Prime Minister who is preoccupied with creative enrichment, while our people suffer.