The Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, announced his personal intention to continue pushing for a reduction in regional taxes on air travel, once he takes place as president of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) next month.
High taxes on these trips have always been a problem for many Caribbean citizens. Despite many public requests and the recognition of these by officials in the region, there were no major movements related with this situation in several years.
‘Caribbean citizens against high intraregional travel taxes’ was called the group that at the end of 2019 initiated a request to reduce taxes that gathered almost 20,000 signatures, according to the newspaper Antigua Observer.
Prime Minister Browne, who was one of the first leaders to respond to this organization’s letter, explained during a discussion on Twitter this weekend that advocating for lowering air travel rates will be in his priorities.
He insisted that the pandemic we are experiencing provided an opportunity to try that reduction due to the suspension of financial commitments for most of the regional airports.
“When we look at the fact that Covid has literally given us the opportunity to pause debt, as most of these airport loans are not being paid at this time, and also the fact that there is practically little income from intra-regional travel, I am part of the opinion – I raised this point at the OECS level and will certainly take it up when I take over the presidency of Caricom in July – that it is time for us to reduce taxes, even up to 50 percent,» Brown said.
The newspaper Antigua Observer mentioned that Browne’s statements should be taken with a grain of salt, given that this has been promised by several regional leaders without obtaining any result. The chief president accepted that he should have taken measures a long time ago to rectify the situation, but pointed out the problems that prevented Antigua and Barbuda and other territories from taking the plunge.
