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Volume No. 1 Issue No. 22 - Friday, May 31, 2002 |
Public Servants Debate Stabilization Levy
PM Charles Promises Not to Cut Work Force
by: Thomson
Fontaine
Following
the end of discussions between the government of Dominica and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Prime Minister Pierre Charles
announced that his government would not undertake a 10 per cent cut in the Public Service nor institute a 10 per cent wage cut as part of a fiscal stabilization
and adjustment program negotiated with the IMF. Instead, civil servants would be asked to pay a stabilization levy over a two to three year period.
The stabilization levy would be imposed on personal income on a pay as you earn (PAYE) basis. This would mean that public servants would have to pay a certain per cent of their income on a monthly basis over and beyond their usual personal taxes.
For government to realise the projected savings, this would imply a possible levy of approximately 4 percent on income. The membership of the public service union were reported to be meeting on the proposal.
The Fiscal Stabilisation Programme was put together by Staff of the Ministry of Finance and Planning, the Caribbean Development Bank and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank and formed the basis of the stabilisation programme negotiated with the IMF.
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