BY: JULIE CARRINGTON
Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley is promising constant monitoring and tweaking, if necessary, of the basket of 45 essential items instituted by government last month to ease the pockets of Barbadians.
She gave the undertaking today, during a press conference at Ilaro Court, while emphasising that there will be constant monitoring and reporting on the prices of the staples to the Cabinet as well as other stakeholders within the Social Partnership.
Ms. Mottley stressed: “We recognise that there’s been a lot of debate on all range of items and all range of cost of living items and let me very simple and very clear… But we felt that we had an obligation to deal with the staples and it is those staples that we will continue to have the monitoring and the reporting to Cabinet, as well as to other stakeholders within the Social Partnership. And, we believe that we can manage this process between now and the end of January.”
While pointing out that the world was extremely volatile, she gave the assurance that government would continue to shield Barbadians wherever possible, adding that this was widely discussed with her Cabinet Ministers, stakeholders in the Social Partnership and sectoral interests.
Ms. Mottley reminded the public that the basket of commodities did not include items like liquor but included the basic staples that can be accessed by all households to feed their families.
The Prime Minister also stressed she was confident that the reduction of the Value Added Tax on electricity bills for the first 250 kilowatt hours and the reduction in price on some commodities, would allow Barbadians to be “more comfortable and more capable of keeping their heads above water”.
