Former Finance Minister Labels Government Relief Measures “Too Little, Too Late”
Former Finance Minister Camilo Gonsalves has sharply criticized the current administration’s newly announced cost-of-living relief package, characterizing the efforts as “too little, too late” while calling for more targeted interventions to protect the nation’s most vulnerable.
Speaking during a recent radio broadcast where he filled in for Opposition Leader Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, the former minister unpacked the government’s economic relief strategies, warning that several of the policies are misleading or functionally inadequate for the current crisis.
While acknowledging that global geopolitical events such as wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are driving up fuel and commodity prices out of the government’s control, Gonsalves stressed that the core job of the Prime Minister is to manage these vulnerabilities effectively.
Gonsalves directed his sharpest criticism at the government’s handling of fuel prices. He noted that packaging a sudden 25% increase in gas prices as a “success” is political spin. “You can’t tell me if I go into a store that we have a sale… and part of the sale is that everything costs 25% more than it used to cost,” he remarked.
He attributed the massive leap at the pump to the current administration’s miscalculation and abandonment of the “three-month rolling average” a previous policy designed to absorb sudden price shocks by passing on fuel cost increases incrementally. By holding prices artificially low under the assumption that the global crisis would be short-lived, the government ultimately forced fuel companies to sell at a loss, leading to the dramatic price jump now burdening consumers.
Gonsalves also took aim at the administration’s rhetoric surrounding the “100% removal of the customs service charge”. He argued that this messaging sounds like a massive reduction but obscures the reality that the actual customs service charge is only 5%. While he supports the reduction, he cautioned that over-promising the impact creates public distrust when citizens see almost no change in their expenses.
Furthermore, Gonsalves criticized the government’s newly announced task force, which is meant to ensure that supermarkets pass shipping container savings down to consumers. He dismissed the task force as lacking both the legal authority and the manpower required to monitor thousands of products and prevent price gouging. “The task force does not have the juridical authority to do the things that they want you to think it can do,” he stated, noting that enforcing lower prices would require passing actual consumer protection laws.
Instead of broad, untargeted tax cuts that primarily benefit the business community, Gonsalves proposed a suite of targeted, time-bound measures focused strictly on the poorest and most vulnerable citizens. His core proposals include:
- Reinstating the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA): Providing direct cash assistance to the 3,000 most vulnerable households for a minimum of three months.
- Raising the Minimum Wage: Convening a wages council immediately to adjust minimum wages in response to recent inflation.
- Public Sector Salary Increases: Negotiating salary increases for civil servants retroactive to January, noting that this is the first year in nearly a decade without a public servant pay bump.
- Subsidizing Minibus Operators: Providing fuel subsidies or lowering vehicle registration and tire costs for minibus drivers to prevent an imminent spike in public transportation fares, which disproportionately hurts the poor.
Gonsalves framed his critique not as an attack, but as a respectful plea for the government to reconsider its approach. “Right now people need help. They don’t need rhetoric,” he concluded, urging the administration to deploy genuine economic relief before conditions worsen.