Bridgetown.
Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, Donville Inniss has warned the Government not to offer "a Rolls Royce service on a Suzuki budget'.
Speaking at a Meet the Minister session held by the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inniss, said he recognised the difficulties this could pose while he was Minisiter of Health.
According to Inniss while Government would continue to help those in need Barbados could not afford to become a “welfare state”.
“The state does not have a bottomless pit of resources and we have a finite amount of money to spend and therefore we have to be very frank and sincere with our people in terms of what we can and cannot do. I certainly recognised in the health sector that we were in many respects seeking to offer a Rolls Royce service on a Suzuki budget", Inniss said.
The Minister said this showed him that there are certain realities that the Government will have to face.
“There are certain expectations that also have to be tempered in the face of reality in terms of what we can produce. I don’t want to develop a mendicant society. I believe that Barbadians ought really to work for what they desire, what they want, indeed we cannot have a situation where the state is expected to provide everything to everyone,” he stated.
“It is not sustainable, Barbados must not become a welfare state because at the end of the day if we are going to produce and provide more and more services from the state’s end it means that you have to be taxed more and more and there is a limit to which you can tax individuals", he added.
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