Bajan opposition promises divestment of state broadcaster

(Barbados Nation) The Barbados Labour Party (BLP) is promising a new Constitution, the divestment of the state-owned Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the reform of the court system as part of a 15-point plan to improve governance in Barbados by 2016, once returned to Government.

BLP leader Owen Arthur has also promised a new tax rate for middle-income earners, a land tax ease and “an immediate and comprehensive reversal” of the Democratic Labour Party’s (DLP) policies.

The plans would see allowances tax-free again, VAT reverted to 15 per cent and the reversal of energy pricing and taxation policies which, according to the former Prime Minister, “have raped the private sector and bankrupted almost every household in Barbados”.

The strategies are part of a wider plan which Arthur outlined yesterday during a 90-minute address on the final day of the BLP’s 74th Annual Conference that gave a taste of the party’s yet to be released manifesto as hope for a country which he said was facing the possibility of losing all the gains realized since Independence.