St Kitts and Nevis PM Terrance Drew prioritizes people in new budget plans

St Kitts and Nevis: Prime Minister Terrance Drew has been quite vocal about the changes he plans to bring to salaries, within the remit of the new Budget presented for St Kitts and Nevis. He spoke of his first meeting with then GG and presented the salary increase report of 2019.

As the salary review is mandatory every three years, the salary review committee was led by Howard McEachrane. Further, he outlined that the increase was budgeted in 2021 to get into effect in 2022. For the same, the votes were done by PAM (People’s Action Movement) and UNITY which was a political alliance grouped of three political parties in St Kitts and Nevis.

However, the leadership then came from the St Kitts Labour Party. And, they put forth that under their leadership, people are to be placed first before accepting any increase. Certain areas were included which are as follows:

• Hike in the minimum wage when there comes no increase in the wage for ten years.
• The announcement for the pension for Government Authorized Exchange (GAE) workers. It is even highlighted that the decrease in the same was by PAM and UNITY.
• An increase to over 40% in the salary for civil servants will also be given over time.

Not only this, but the significant initiative also speaks of providing the children with financial education and savings. Under this, the children aged 5 to 18 will get the benefits. And, the amount for the same will be $1000 each, divided as $500 in savings and $500 in shares.

Also, this includes an increase in the social security minimum payment and the workers’ independence bonus of $1000 and the independence reset plan. PAM or UNITY did not address all the above-mentioned factors.

The Prime Minister also shared the financial summary including the actual amounts of 2020, Estimated for 2021, Planned for 2022, Projected for 2023 and 2024. These are provided for the three categories that are Administrative services, remunerate members of Parliament and support the office of the opposition.

“Labour always puts the people first,” mentioned the PM Terrance Drew.

Highlighting the work of the Labour Party, it can even be stated that integrity in public life was avoided in the previous administration to avoid the wrongful acts of corruption.