G.O.B. projections in windfall tax in jeopardy

In other news caused by the economic crisis, much decreased crude oil prices have forced the government to revisit its revenue from the recently implemented windfall tax. Back in July when P.M. Barrow announced the terms of the tax on local companies and license holders, prices were hovering around a hundred and thirty-three dollars a barrel. After dropping way down to ninety dollars, today crude sold at just over a hundred dollars; just ten dollars above the windfall. Today, Barrow maintained that there is both good news and bad news in the decrease. The good news is lower prices for consumers; the bad is that the estimated eighteen million dollars in revenue for budget support for this financial year is in serious jeopardy.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“Clearly, the prices are so volatile that one would be foolhardy to make any projections as to where they are likely to stabilize at. Really, the volatility seems to be the only thing that’s certain. So yes, we are going to be hurt in so far as the windfall profit tax is concerned, but there is nothing to be done about that. Indeed, if the trends continue as they are this will completely wipe out the windfall profit tax. It wasn’t as though we had major projects riding on this. It will affect us in terms of the budget support that we certainly would have gotten from the additional revenue yield, but we’ll just have to deal with that and we’ll just have to trim our sails and act accordingly.”