The VAT Act No.7 of 2012 in St Lucia has been published and is now a public document.
The Act provides for the administration of the collection of the value added tax (VAT) and speaks of a number of areas not limited to:
1. The powers of the Comptroller of Inland Revenue;
2. The oath of secrecy to be undertaken by tax officers not to disclose taxpayer information
the poor is definitely going to be poorer and the rich richer.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Beware of politicians. Dr. Aaron’s may be correct that in reality –Truth and politics are bitter enemies.
Politics is about our life-we understand that. But politicians are special creatures that don’t understand and perhaps we should not even bother try to understand.
Case in point: The St Lucian Opposition (UWP) lead by Mr. Stevenson King, is now on a series of Island wide public meetings on social and political issues. High on the agenda is the VAT and its impact on St Lucia.
Now remember, it was the former King Administration that introduced ST Lucians to VAT.
It was Mr. King, who introduced the concept and possibility of implementing the VAT in ST Lucia while presenting his last budget to parliament.
It was the UWP that spent over 2 years in educating ST Lucians on the impact of the VAT. This educational drive was managed by a special VAT Implementation Office created by Mr. King.
Nevertheless, Mr. King is now claiming that the VAT plans that he referenced were conditional and were only borne out of obligations that the Anthony administration had made over 10 years ago. He also argues that the ST Lucian public has not yet fully grasped the finer points of the tax and he now wants more time to “fully educate and sensitize the population on the VAT.
Papa met!-OMG-that is why ST lucians voted out Mr. King. This is what Dr. Aaron was saying to us. Truth and Politics are really constantly at war.
But should that be the norm? Should we accept this hypothesis as true? I respond in the negative.
Respectfully
Roseau valley
In St. Lucia ELECTRICITY WIIL BE ZERO RATED for vat purposes.The Govt. in that country sees this as an essential service. Wish such wisdom would prevail in Dominica.
The astuteness and practicality with which Dr. Anthony administers the domestic and foreign affairs of St Lucia cannot be compared with the failed experiment mess in Dominica.
St. Lucia’s economic landscape is so much more diverse and robust than Dominica’s. St Lucia’s fundamental economic pillars are much stronger than Dominica’s. St. Lucia does have a productive sector that actually adds value to goods and services including its much more advanced tourism and manufacturing sector.
During the discussions on the 2012/2013 budget address by the Prime Minister, one of the most interesting contributions I heard from entrepreneur (Economist/Successful businessman) Herbert Sukie Winston. I was impressed.
According to Sukie, the government should re-activate the implementation of the VAT in Dominica and have it implemented on a scaled basis in accordance with the nature, level and type of consumption patterns i.e., not to apply the VAT as a flat percentage across the board. Instead, he advocated that it should be imposed at a higher rate on luxurious and expensive, non-essential, pleasure goods and services that merely satisfy individual “wants”. The VAT should then be reduced on the goods and services consumed as “Needs” so that the poor among us will be more protected based on the nature of their consumption.
This appears to be the approach taken by St Lucia in implementing the VAT. A higher VAT will be placed on purchases of SUVs, luxurious cars, jewelry, entertainment services but a lower % would be paid on poor malaway consumption of necessities as bread, milk, slat, sugar, butter and sugar.
The Skerrit economic module of over taxing a dying economy to recovery is equivalent to his self-inflicted and unnecessary political wounding caused by the repeated violation of our constitution
The cost of goods in St. Lucia will rise. The effects of the global recession are trickling down. Thanks to the world (George Bush and his cronies) and their retard “war on terror” billions of dollars are spent while millions of Americans live in poverty.
So Obama, who’s added even more troops to Afghanistan, send bombers over Egypt and shot cruise missile everyplace and has allowed Islamic radicals to take over in the ME, is blameless?
You’re as bad as all the bootlickers for the Democratic Party in the US that always claim everything bad is “Bush’s fault.”
Open your eyes, you may learn something. Obama is completely destroying the US economy and by proxy the economies of small countries all over the region. Just look at what’s happened to the tourism sector resulting in all the crime in places such as Calibishie. May I assume this is “Bush’s” fault too?
In Dominica EVERYTHING IS VAT,VAT,VAT but the good thing about the St lucia vat, basic items will
be VAT-FREE !
Don’t be fooled. This is just the beginning.
Look for ways to help Dominica, instead of boasting another blindly.
Bitter Days are here!!
Oh Oh, St Lucia now has VAT …the Sky is falling…
Does Dominica have VAT???