Arthur’s ‘bag of sweets’ for Bajans

BRIDGETOWN — In what has been described as his “bag of sweets” in tax reductions for Barbadians, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Owen Arthur has presented a US$1.1-billion budget for fiscal year 2002/2003 ending in March next year.

The estimates of expenditure are some US$200,000 more than the 2001/2002 fiscal year budget and includes US$133 million for debt servicing for the year (BDS$1=US50 cents).

The package of tax ease includes reduction in personal income tax from 25 per cent to 22.5 per cent; increase in housing allowance from BDS$6,000 to BDS$10,000; 50 per cent duty-free allowance for residents importing non-commercial goods and a rise in the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) retirement age to 67 from 65.

The prime minister in his presentation of the estimates of expenditure in Parliament Tuesday, also proposed a 40 per cent hike in import duties on turkey wings and a 300,000-pound limit on the importation of poultry products by the state-run Barbados Development Marketing Corporation, and some BDS$5 million in incentives for local pig farmers.

These incentives, along with other measures, such as the creation of a new National Agricultural Commission, are intended to give a boost to the country’s agricultural sector and specifically its buy local campaign of so-called “100 per cent” Bajan products.

Opposition Leader David Thompson’s immediate reaction to the budget was that it was “full of sweet nothings”.

He said that Arthur’s budgetary proposals revealed no significant new initiatives and maintained the social and economic division in the country.

In a 28-seat Parliament where Thompson and just one other Democratic Labour Party representative make up the official two-man opposition, Arthur and his Barbados Labour Party colleagues can be expected to dominate the ensuing debate on the new budget.

Two shot at Brazilian restaurant in Guyana

GEORGETOWN — Two men were shot and wounded and a policeman narrowly escaped when gunmen opened fire at a Brazilian restuarant in Georgetown Tuesday night in the latest criminal activity reported by the police.

The police were yesterday on the hunt for the four heavily armed men who hijacked a private motor car shortly after storming the Brazilian restaurant on Alexander Street in the city.

A police detective who was in the restaurant at the time dashed for cover and returned fire. As the bandits tried to escape, the lawman shattered the windscreen of their vehicle with a bullet but they disappeared.

Shortly after the gunmen abandoned the get-away car and hijacked the motor car of an elderly woman.

The police were yesterday following leads that two of the armed bandits were recognised by eyewitnesses as Shawn Brown and Dale Moore who were among the five dangerous escapees from the Georgetown Prison on February 23.

Woman ‘accidentally’ shot to death

PORT-OF-SPAIN — A 25 year-old woman from Chaguanas, Trinidad, was shot to death by a relative who was ‘kicksing’, or fooling around with a gun he said he found at his home.

The dead woman, Jewel Marcano, had gone to her mother’s Chaguanas home to celebrate the birthday of her 10 year-old brother, Lyndon. There she met the male relative and, according to her 74 year-old grandmother, Baby Ashby, they all had ice-cream and were laughing and enjoying themselves.

The grandmother said the relative, who was expected to be charged with manslaughter yesterday at the Chaguanas magistrate court, had earlier been playing around with the gun.

Suddenly, while she was in the kitchen, she heard this explosion that she first thought was a fire cracker, only to discover, to her horror, that Jewel was lying at the bottom of the steps bleeding.

The 24 year-old relative with the gun cried out to grandma Ashby to summon the ambulance. When it arrived, Marcano was already dead.