With saltfish selling for more than EC$20 a pound and annual inflation hitting 7 percent in September, Opposition Leader Jamale Pringle is renewing his party's call for a comprehensive overhaul of the tax system and the zero-rating of essential foods, and he says there is no polite word for the state the country is in.
"Presently, there is a crisis," the United Progressive Party leader told host Adrian Williams on Observer Radio's Voice of the People on Thursday, when asked whether one was brewing.
The fuel increase, he warned, will not stay at the pump. "Not only electricity, but food and transportation will also increase. What we are not getting is a plan on how we are going to navigate this situation."
Expansion of the Zero-Rated Goods
MP Pringle said the UPP has long campaigned on targeted tax relief for the goods ordinary families cannot do without.
"We would look seriously at a comprehensive overhaul of the tax system to see where we can shave a little to offer [relief to] the people of Antigua and Barbuda. We would especially look at expanding the list of essential foods that we can reduce taxes on, so that they are cheaper for the people," he said.
"Food like saltfish, pickled meat and those things… we would have made those foods zero-rated, because we understand the hardship. We understand the fact that your paycheck doesn't grow every week, but the cost of goods increases nearly every week. One time I checked, a pound of saltfish was $15, $16. The last time I check, it's twenty-something dollars."
Williams noted the price was roughly $10 in January. One listener messaged the programme to say they paid $22 on Tuesday.
The pressure is coming from every direction at once. As RealNews has reported, the government's fourth term has already brought a higher passenger head tax, rising electricity bills and a looming water rate increase, along with an expanded windfall tax on businesses that analysts warn will ultimately be passed on to consumers. The US$40-to-US$50 head tax hike has drawn a formal warning from IATA that it could damage the country's air connectivity, with passenger traffic already down 2.6 percent in the first half of 2026.
The $100 Million Question
MP Pringle also accused Prime Minister Gaston Browne of misleading the public about the much-touted $100 million road loan, saying the parliamentary resolution tells a different story from the headline number.
"It was revealed — he would have mentioned — that there's [a] $100 million loan for roads, and [he] also said $100 million cannot fix all the roads in Antigua and Barbuda," Pringle said. "But when I got the resolution, the resolution spoke to only $20 million going to road, $43 million going to finance and development to clear an existing debt there that Transport Board has, and another twenty-something million going to another debt at ACB — bringing it all under one total of $87 million. When this was announced, that was never a part of the whole discussion as it relates to the $100 million."
He said the pattern repeats whenever the Prime Minister is challenged: "Once he get[s] caught in a situation… he resort[s] to either degrading, calling people economic terrorists, or responding negatively to try and drive that fear in people who are being critical of his actions, so that you can hush and have nothing to say."
"You cannot listen to the words of Gaston Browne, the Prime Minister of this country, because he, from my observation, has a way of deceiving the people of this country and let[ting] it seem as if he's doing so much to help them."
40 Percent for What?
The Opposition Leader pointed to the 40 percent increase in vehicle licensing fees as a case study in governance without answers. "He was quick to go to Parliament and increase the vehicle licensing fees by 40 percent, regardless [of] how it affected the people," he said.
"As it relates to the 40 percent, I would have asked the prime minister in Parliament how much that 40 percent increase would have yielded to date, and I'm still without an answer. He said he doesn't know."
That, MP Pringle argued, is impossible to square with the government's own borrowing: "If that is the funds that [are] going to [be] used to cover the loan of $87 million, how, as the finance minister, he cannot answer that question when they're depending on that 40 percent to cover. For me, that's another blatant lie, because you cannot approach an institution not knowing how much you're getting."
