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Opposition Leader and NDP President, Godwin Friday at the party's convention in Petit Bordel on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024.
Opposition Leader and NDP President, Godwin Friday at the party’s convention in Petit Bordel on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024.
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Opposition Leader Godwin Friday has proposed additional policies to ease the “cost-of-living crisis” and is urging Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves to announce them in his independence address on Oct. 27.

“The cost-of-living crisis is something that we can bring relief to the people of this country,” he said as he proposed bonuses for public sector workers and public assistance recipients.

“… hold us to this, we are going to introduce a measure to reduce VAT from 16% to 13% in our first budget as a government,” Friday said at the New Democratic Party’s (NDP) convention in Petit Bordel on Sunday.

He said an NDP administration will also reduce and eliminate customs duties and port charges where possible.

“This will also make things cheaper on the shelves,” Friday said.

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He said an NDP administration would pay year-end bonuses to all public servants and public sector workers.

“And not for them only. For all the people who are on public assistance, they will also have bonuses when the time comes in our budget. So, we will provide relief for those people.”

Friday said the proposals are “not rocket science…

“Don’t tell me we can’t do it because they’re doing it in St. Kitts, they’re doing it in Dominica, and the reason they can do it is because they have a citizenship by investment (CBI) programme that pays for it.”

The NDP has proposed to introduce a CBI programme if elected to office, a policy to which the Unity Labour Party says it remains strongly opposed.

“So, I will tell you this: Don’t let Ralph and them … tell you about you selling passports and stupidness. If I selling passports, I selling it for you because that money is not going in your pocket,” Friday said.

“I am going to make sure that the citizenship by investment programme is properly monitored, and it will be one that will meet the highest levels of scrutiny.”

The opposition leader said that most importantly, the CBI programme will be transparent.

“… no money, going in my pocket, nobody on this side, it going in anybody else pocket.

It going in the pocket of public servants. It’s going in the pockets of people who are on public assistance,” Friday said.

He said non-government workers and people who are not on public assistance will also benefit from the NDP’s policies to reduce the cost of living.

The opposition leader said an NDP administration would introduce “VAT-free shopping days” in August before schools reopen and around Christmas time.

“That is something that is going to put more money back into people’s pockets and give them a chance to be able to make ends meet,” Friday said.

NDP crowd
NDP supporters at the party’s convention in Petit Bordel on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024.

He anticipated criticism from the government that these policies cannot work.

Friday, however, noted that it was the same thing that the ULP said in 2020 when the NDP proposed to reduce student loan interest rates from 9% to 4.5%.

“Ralph said it could not be done, that it was opportunism on the part of Friday and the NDP,” the opposition leader said but noted that in the 2024 budget, the government announced a reduction in the rate to 4.5%.

“The same thing that we propose, they all of a sudden decide that it makes sense to do it. Well, if they had done it three years ago, think of how much the students would have benefited from them.”

Friday said that an NDP administration would go further and waive interest payments on student loans until after the student graduates.

“That provides a lot of relief for parents and families who are struggling to carry the loans when the children are going to school,” he said, adding that a similar policy is in operation in St. Kitts and Nevis.

“So, tell the young people that the New Democratic Party is a party for young people in this country,” Friday said.

He said the 4.5% interest rate would also be extended to farmers and fishers, through a national development bank that an NDP administration would establish.

“… that will create more opportunities for these fisher folk and farmers to buy equipment, to buy tools and to expand and to upgrade their production, become more productive and to do better,” the opposition leader said.

“That is how we transform the economy in this country, not just by going out there and begging and borrowing. Anybody can borrow money. Anybody can beg money. Building an economy is what takes thought, it takes work and it takes people of heart to get it done.

“So, I want to offer this. Ralph has a speech coming up for national independence day. Not so? And he does go and promise all kind of things. All these points I just made here today, I’m offering them to him.

“I am saying, introduce these measures now. Don’t let us wait until we come into government next year. Take every single one of them and introduce them, because they will benefit the people of this country. “

Friday said that the government is taking the opposition’s ideas one by one and trying to disguise them.

“But all the ideas that are here are ones that can be done and they will benefit the people of this country,” he said.

2 replies on “NDP outlines policies to ease cost of living ”

  1. What I read into this campaign speech is not one party vilifying the other party but instead stating the clear difference between the two. My only wish is people will listen. The electorate is SVG seems to be in love with a 78 year old marxist white man who keeps promising the world and delivering nothing. Time after time. The PM is a hardened marxist communist who has his son in charge of the country’s finances; and a group of cronies following him to stuff their pockets. Save the country. Vote them out.

  2. If other Caribbean countries doing so then why can’t we ? It’s all about caring for the people .

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