The ULP Regime is desperate for money. In the 2005 Budget, current expenditure is greater than current revenue by $37 million dollars. To raise revenue, the hypocritical ULP regime, who claim to be the government for the poor, increased tax on the poor by taxing kerosene. Kerosene is the poor man’s vehicle for lighting their homes and for cooking. The ULP also increased tax on diesel, petrol, lottery winnings and cell phone cards.
According to the CIA World fact book, ‘‘Taiwan’s trade surplus is substantial and its foreign reserves are the world third largest at US$ 207 billion’’. The ULP regime though, keeps turning a blind eye to the billions of dollars Taiwan fishing industry is making from SVG fish licence to fish in the Atlantic Ocean. The Honourable Lewis Straker said in a public statement, ‘the relationship between SVG and Taiwan is like a marriage’. If that’s the case let Taiwan gives us half of the money they have ‘creamed-off’ from deep-sea fishing under SVG licences since 1987.

ICCAT’s fishing licences
The international commission for the conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) granted SVG the right to fish in the Atlantic Ocean. SVG in turn rents those fishing rights to the Taiwanese fishing industry for a pittance on what is known as a ‘flag of convenience’. In order for Taiwan’s ships to be accepted by ICCAT to fish in the Atlantic Ocean on the SVG fish licence, Taiwan has to register several companies with the SVG fish department, so that in the eyes of ICCAT, the deep sea fishing ships have SVG flags, and are owned by Vincentians and not by Taiwan.

Taiwan’s Vincentian companies should pay tax
According to SVG Green Party research, the Vincentian companies that are registered with SVG fish department, and in theory own Taiwan deep sea fishing ships, should pay corporation fish tax as from 1987 to 2004. The research discovered there is no tax exemption from the corporation fish tax for these Taiwanese-Vincentian companies – the tax owed by Taiwan runs into hundreds of millions of dollars for the period 1987 to 2004. In the light of the heavy tax burden placed on Vincentians by the wicked ULP regime, SVG Green Party is calling on the Minister of Finance to make a public statement on (a) why has the Taiwan fishing industry not paid corporation tax on fishing on SVG’s fish licence in the Atlantic ocean; (b) are the Taiwanese and the Taiwanese-Vincentians companies exempt from paying tax on the billons of dollars made from Taiwan’s fishing industry; (c) why is the ULP regime taxing the poor, and allowing Taiwan with US$207 billion dollars in reserve, to be allowed to get away with not paying corporation fish tax; and (d) why has the ULP not revised the fish licence to enable the Treasury to collect the millions of dollars of corporation fish tax from Taiwan’s Atlantic Ocean fishing industry.

Atlantic Ocean fishing. Deep-sea fishing in the Atlantic Ocean offers the greatest opportunity to bring in the revenue needed to properly revolutionise the economy. The NDP and ULP regimes seem oblivious to this very important source of revenue. The potential revenue from the fish industry is projected to be over $1 billion annually, significantly out-stripping the combined revenue earned from tourism and bananas.
In government, SVG Green Party will cancel all fish licences given to ‘flag of convenience’ foreign vessels, and replace these licences with joint-venture agreements. Under the SVG Green Party government, all deep-sea fishing ships would have a fifty per cent Vincentian crew and there will be the potential of transfer technology in deep-sea fishing techniques. More importantly, half the revenue earned by each ship will come to the SVG treasury. This has been a missed opportunity under the NDP and ULP to earn billions of dollars to stimulate the economy.