GST-Free Weekends Return, But Will Families Really Save?

Prime Minister John Briceño’s announcement of the return of GST-free weekends is drawing criticism from Public Service Union President Dean Flowers. In today’s “Enough is Enough” protest in Belmopan, Flowers questioned how the measure will help families struggling with grocery expenses, especially as rising electricity bills continue to put pressure on household budgets. Here’s what he had to say.

 

Dean Flowers, President, Public Service Union

“I had to address the matter of GST. How will a GST weekend help a mother weh spend two hundred dollars a month on groceries? The average Belizean di spend five hundred dollars a month on groceries. Now tell me, how does two GST weekends help them to alleviate the pain that they are feeling? And then to continue tek we like a bunch of fools, the man wa announce that he wah give another free GST weekend on a non-pay day on January 23rd when people done no got no money. I mean it makes absolutely no sense so I want to say this, if electricity bill has doubled in my case from seventy-six dollars to almost a hundred sixty-four dollars that da no GST. How the hell can you say to ‘bway well if you di pay under two hundred dollars you don’t have to pay GST’ it doesn’t really matter brother, my electricity bill has doubled. Where is the relief in that?” 

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

Watch the full newscast here: