BARBADOS-FINANCE-Government defends the introduction of concession legislation.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has defended the decision of her administration to table the Labour Clauses Concessions Bill, saying the government foregoes approximately BDS$750 million (One BDSS=US$0.50 cents) in revenue annually, as a result of tax concessions.

To be debated in the House of Assembly this week, the bill seeks to establish minimum rates and conditions for workers, which companies benefiting from tax concessions should adhere to.

At a branch meeting of her ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP), Prime Minister Mottley said her government is simply legislating what has existed under the collective bargaining agreement with labor unions and hoteliers for the past 60 years.

She dismissed suggestions the legislation may act as a deterrent to foreign investors.

“Government revenue is coming at about BDS$3.2 billion, so if you are effectively giving away BDS$750 million. Some of these concessions return to (prime ministers) Errol Barrow and Tom Adams’ time.

“So this is a continuum, and all the government says these are subsidies. A concession is a subsidy, and if you are going to get a subsidy from the taxpayers and we are not going to be able to spend that money directly on the same taxpayers, then you must treat them fairly.”

Mottley said it was essential to ensure a minimum “below which you cannot go.”

She said Barbados is a country “where we have known what it is to have people be the source of people’s profits through exploitation. It cannot be acceptable in an independent Barbados for us to agree that any worker must be able to fuel, by their underpayment or undertreatment, the competitiveness or the profitability of any hotel in this country.

“That is all the government is saying,” she told the party supporters.

The government is expected to easily pass the legislation controlling 29 of the 30 seats in the Parliament.

On Monday, former government legislator Ralph Thorne was sworn in as Opposition leader after leaving the government.

Following his appointment, he told reporters, “People instinctively oppose the government in the public domain…of the legislation it is bringing to Parliament weekly”.