“Toothless” Task Force
Former Finance Minister Camilo Gonsalves warned that the current administration is overpromising and underdelivering to a public struggling with the rising cost of living, urging leaders to be more honest about the reality of their policies.
A major point of contention is the governments heavily promoted “100% removal of the customs service charge”. Gonsalves argued that while this phrasing sounds like massive economic relief, it deliberately obscures a crucial mathematical fact: the actual customs service charge is only 5%.
“Is taking off 5% a good thing? It can be a good thing. But is leaving 95%,” Gonsalves stated. He cautioned that framing a 5% reduction as a “100% removal” is a packaging tactic that ultimately damages public trust. When citizens go to the store and experience almost no change in their daily expenses, they feel misled.
He advised the administration to be straightforward with the public. “If you’re taking off a 5%, tell them people you’re taking off a 5%,” he suggested, noting that citizens would appreciate the modest relief without the exaggerated political spin.
Gonsalves also dismantled the administration’s reliance on a newly formed task force intended to monitor supermarket prices and ensure that reductions in shipping container costs are passed on to consumers. He pointed out that thousands of products enter St. Vincent and the Grenadines daily, making it impossible for the task force to effectively track prices across dozens of supermarkets due to a severe lack of manpower.
More importantly, Gonsalves highlighted that the task force completely lacks the “juridical authority” to force businesses to lower prices. If a supermarket claims that the base price of a product increased even though shipping costs went down, the task force is powerless to intervene.
He further noted a “missing step” in the government’s approach, explaining that the task force was originally designed simply to advise the government within the “four walls of the administrative complex,” not to act as on-the-ground enforcers.
If the government genuinely wants to combat high prices, Gonsalves argued, they cannot rely on a task force merely “watching” supermarket shelves. Instead, the government must pass actual consumer protection laws to prevent price gouging a step he claims the Prime Minister is currently dodging.
“I don’t think that we should overpromise and underdeliver,” Gonsalves concluded, demanding greater transparency about the limitations of the government’s current economic strategies.