Good day citizens and residents of St. Kitts and Nevis. This is the post-cabinet briefing for Monday January 5, 2009.
Review of the Carnival Season
At today’s cabinet meeting, the government reflected on the recently concluded carnival season in which thousands of people resident in Nevis, St. Kitts and abroad gathered in the city of Basseterre to participate in the carnival activities and to enjoy the spectacle from the sidelines. It is the assessment of the government that the carnival season was extremely successful given the high level of participation, the lack of any major disruption in critical services, and the conduct of our citizens that led to a relatively incident-free and crime-free carnival.
Cabinet expresses sincere thanks to the Ministry of Culture, the Carnival Committee, the Ministry of National Security and all groups and individuals who helped make the season the success it has been.
The government pledges to continue to work with individual citizens and non-government entities to bring about and sustain improvements in every area of its work.
Review of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Prices
At today’s meeting, Cabinet reviewed an analysis from the Ministry of Finance of government’s continuing subsidy of the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). Government for some time has been subsidizing the price of the 100lb cylinder and the 20lb cylinder. At present, government is subsidizing the price of the 100lb cylinder by $64.51, and the price of the 20lb cylinder by $13.23. At the end of 2008, the levels of subsidy had risen sharply over the previous year, 2007, when the levels of subsidy for the two cylinder sizes had been $29.79 and $5.29 respectively.
Taking into account the need to continue to protect the poor and to control the cost of living in a time of global financial crisis, Cabinet took a decision not to remove or reduce the subsidy on LPG. Therefore, the current prices will remain unchanged. In St. Kitts, the price of a 100lb cylinder of LPG is $140 and the price for the 20lb cylinder is $30. In Nevis, the prices of the two cylinder sizes are $160 and $40 respectively.
National Implementation Task Force on Crime
As a result of the National Consultation on Crime held December 12, 2008 at the Marriott Hotel, the Minister of National Security submitted to the cabinet a proposal to establish a task force to implement the recommendations coming out from the consultation. At the consultation, many groups and individuals gave their commitment to support the government’s improved crime-fighting strategy that will arise out of the recommendations of the consultation.
Specifically, it is being recommended that the task force be comprised of members from the Ministry of National Security, the Ministry of Legal Affairs, the Ministry of Social Development, the Ministry of Education, corresponding ministries in the Nevis Island Administration, St. Kitts National Youth Parliament Association, the Clergy, the Media Association, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Parent-Teachers Associations, and other civil society organisations and interest groups.
The task force will collate the recommendations of the consultation and will work with the government to have them implemented within specific timelines.
END
Cabinet takes this opportunity to wish all citizens and residents a successful and safe 2009.
This brings to an end the post Cabinet briefing for Monday January 5, 2009.
