No plans for re-introduction of Personal Income Tax, says PM Douglas, PAM accused of ‘politics of diversion, deception and misinformation’

St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas at Tuesday night’s Town Hall Meeting at the Old Boys School (photo by Erasmus Williams)

ST. KITTS JANUARY 26TH 2011 (CUOPM) – St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas has denied a statement by the leadership of the opposition People’s Action Movement (PAM) that Personal Income Tax will be re-introduced.

Responding to a question from a telephone caller during a Town Hall Meeting Tuesday night to mark the first anniversary of the election for a fourth consecutive term in office, Prime Minister Douglas accused the opposition party of practicing politics of diversion, deception and misinformation.

“We have no intention, we have had no discussion; we have had no intention in recent times or in the near future to reintroduce Personal Income Tax. If that were ever to happen, it will be dome after profound consultation with the people of St. Kitts and Nevis and you would know if ever at all that is being contemplated. At the moment, there is nothing of that kind,” said Prime Minister Douglas, who added that it was unfortunate that the Hon. Eugene Hamilton can get into the media and the news only by misinformation and by deception.

“There is no truth whatsoever from our end that there is any reintroduction of personal income tax,” said Prime Minister Douglas, who is also Minister of Finance.

“I do not know where the Hon. Eugene Hamilton is getting that information from,” said Dr. Douglas, who noted that this is the week when PAM and its leader Mr. Lindsay Grant received its fourth consecutive electoral defeat.

“If you follow their whole press releases over the last week and this week, they are practicing what I want to describe as the political of diversion in order to take people’s minds off their incompetence and their continued rejection from the people of St. Kitts and Nevis. They have resorted to the practice of deception and also misinformation and so they are deliberately putting information out there to deceive people, to misinform people as part of their strategy of diversion,” said Dr. Douglas.