分类： politics

In a recent public address, Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda has confirmed that 130 prospective students have completed their registration for the newly launched Bachelor of Laws degree programme at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Five Islands campus. This initiative marks a major milestone in expanding access to legal education for local and regional students, eliminating the need for many to pursue costly legal studies abroad.

In a bold policy announcement aimed at addressing long-standing underfunding in the national education sector, Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis Gaston Browne has tabled a proposal to expand the country’s existing windfall tax regime to generate new revenue for educational institutions and programs.

The current windfall tax in the twin-island nation applies exclusively to unexpected excess profits earned by major international oil and gas companies operating within its territorial waters. Under Browne’s revised plan, the tax would be extended to cover additional industries that have recorded outsized, unanticipated gains in recent years, including offshore finance, tourism, and precious minerals extraction.

Prime Minister Browne emphasized that the new revenue generated from the expanded tax would be ring-fenced exclusively for education-related investments. The proposed allocations include upgrading aging school infrastructure across both islands, expanding access to free early childhood education, providing increased financial aid for post-secondary students attending domestic and international universities, and hiring hundreds of additional trained teachers to reduce overcrowding in classrooms.

“For too long, we have watched a small handful of corporations reap extraordinary profits from our nation’s natural resources and open business environment, while our young people struggle with outdated learning facilities and limited opportunities to advance their education,” Browne noted during a press briefing launching the proposal. “This is a matter of fairness: expanding the windfall tax allows us to redirect a small portion of those unexpected gains to invest in our most valuable resource – our people.”

The proposal has already sparked debate across the national political landscape. Supporters of the plan argue that it represents a progressive step toward reducing income inequality and investing in human capital, which will drive long-term economic growth for the country. Critics, however, including representatives of the affected industries and opposition lawmakers, warn that expanding the windfall tax could deter foreign direct investment, discourage business expansion, and ultimately lead to fewer job opportunities for local workers.

Browne has countered these concerns by noting that the tax will only apply to excess profits that exceed baseline thresholds, meaning small and medium-sized enterprises will not be impacted by the new policy. He also confirmed that the government will hold public consultations on the proposal in the coming months before bringing the final legislation to parliament for a vote, with a target implementation date of the start of the next fiscal year.

Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne has publicly questioned the fairness and effectiveness of the country’s existing Antigua and Barbuda Sales Tax (ABST) framework, flagging evidence that the current input-output tax mechanism allows large tourism businesses to recoup millions in public revenue at the state’s expense. During his weekly public radio address Saturday, Browne said he had directed senior finance ministry officials to launch an accelerated review of whether the ABST system aligns with the small island nation’s unique economic profile, and to explore potential alternative tax models that could shore up declining government revenues.

Browne’s criticism of the tax structure emerged during a wide-ranging discussion of the country’s key tourism sector, which forms the backbone of Antigua and Barbuda’s national economy. Under the current ABST rules, operating businesses can claim full tax credits for ABST paid on inputs including imported goods, operational supplies, and large capital investments, which they then use to offset the sales tax they collect directly from end consumers. Using hotels and resorts as a case in point, Browne explained that many large properties collect a 15% ABST from overnight guests, but amass such significant input tax credits through imported food, beverages, construction materials and other capital purchases that the government often ends up owing the businesses money instead of collecting revenue. He cited one example where a resort paid $20 million in ABST on imported goods, a sum that is fully offset against the tax the resort collected from guests — leaving the government with no net revenue from that portion of economic activity.

The prime minister argued that the current ABST framework, which was designed to work for economies with large domestic manufacturing sectors by incentivizing local input purchases, is fundamentally ill-suited to Antigua and Barbuda’s economy, which relies heavily on imported goods for its tourism sector. Worse, Browne noted, the current structure creates an unintended and harmful economic distortion: it actively discourages hotels and other businesses from purchasing locally produced goods, because importing supplies effectively allows them to bring those products into the country free of all taxes and duties, while domestic purchases would not deliver the same level of tax offsets.

To address these flaws, Browne has instructed finance officials to prioritize exploration of a shift to a simple flat sales tax, which would eliminate the expansive input tax credit system that allows large businesses to reclaim most or all of their collected tax. Under the proposed model, businesses would pay a single flat tax at one point in the supply chain, removing the current scope for large-scale tax offsets that erode public revenue. Browne stressed that any reform would need to be carefully designed to avoid the risk of double taxation, a key pitfall that policymakers must guard against to prevent unfair tax burdens on businesses and consumers along the supply chain. He clarified that no final policy decision has been made, and the current review remains in the exploratory phase.

During the radio address, Browne also suggested that policymakers may need to consider a sector-specific approach to taxation, arguing that international-facing hotels operate with a very different business model than domestic wholesalers and retailers, and the current one-size-fits-all structure fails to account for these structural differences. As a major source of public revenue for Antigua and Barbuda, any substantive change to the ABST system will require extensive consultation with private sector stakeholders and will almost certainly require legislative approval before any new framework can be implemented. Finance officials are expected to complete their review and submit policy recommendations that balance the government’s goal of boosting revenue with the need to maintain a fair and predictable tax environment for local businesses.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, one of the United States’ most prominent cultural institutions located in Washington, D.C., has confirmed that it has completed the full removal of Donald J. Trump’s name from one of its on-campus buildings. This administrative move caps off a months-long process that began shortly after the end of Trump’s single four-year term as the 45th U.S. president, when the center’s board of trustees first voted to strip his name from the facility.

In a Wednesday Cabinet session focused on land governance in Barbuda, the government of Antigua and Barbuda has doubled down on its commitment to upholding the island’s land regulations, issuing a fresh, explicit warning that unapproved, unauthorized construction across Barbuda faces imminent legal enforcement, including demolition. The announcement came as Attorney General Sir Steadroy Benjamin updated lawmakers on ongoing progress toward launching the long-awaited formal Barbuda Land Registry, a cornerstone policy initiative designed to overhaul the island’s fragmented land administration system.

Maurice Merchant, Director General of Communications, outlined the body’s unified stance following the meeting: all structures built without the full suite of legally required permits, approvals, and authorizations are officially classified as illegal. Under the government’s newly tightened enforcement framework, authorities will not hesitate to carry out all permitted legal actions, including the full demolition and removal of these unlawful developments, in strict alignment with national land laws.

This public warning is not an isolated measure, but part of a broader government push to bring order to land ownership and development activity across Barbuda, concurrent with the rollout of the new registry system. During the session, Cabinet also reaffirmed a long-held legal position that the Barbuda Council holds no statutory authority to sell, lease, or transfer any land on the island – any transactions conducted outside of government-approved processes will be considered void and unrecognized by the national administration.

Merchant noted that Cabinet has growing concerns over the proliferation of unreported land transactions and unregulated development that operate outside of the state’s formal legal framework. The administration is fully committed to halting the spread of illegal construction, he stressed, and warned that any individual or entity moving forward with construction without securing proper authorization does so at their own legal and financial risk.

In a move designed to balance strict enforcement with protections for long-term residents, officials moved quickly to reassure Barbuda residents who have occupied land on the island for extended periods that they will not be penalized for past informal arrangements. Under the government’s upcoming land registration program, these residents will be given a clear pathway to formalize their land claims and obtain legal ownership documents. This includes the administration’s flagship $1 land ownership initiative, which offers eligible native Barbudans the chance to secure formal title for a nominal fee.

Cabinet emphasized that the completion of the Barbuda Land Registry will deliver far-reaching public benefits, bringing unprecedented certainty, transparency, and legal security to all matters related to land ownership and development across the island. The formal system will also ensure that all future infrastructure, residential, and commercial projects proceed in full compliance with the national laws of Antigua and Barbuda, laying the groundwork for sustainable, orderly growth on the island.