Gov’t awaiting report on tax reform committee for action on VAT

President David Granger says that government is awaiting a report from the tax reform committee before a decision is made on lowering the 16% Value-Added Tax (VAT).

During last week’s recording of “The Public Interest” programme, he assured that the public “could expect something” but said that this will only come after government follows a course, which will involve an investigation first.

He said government will be advised by the committee with regard to possibly reducing VAT. “We don’t want to pull figures out of the air and say bring it down to 10.5 (per cent). This happened in the opposition, this happened in newspaper articles but it is not a scientific basis on which to proceed,” he said.

According to Granger, once government gets the report from the committee, “we are going to make modifications in the public’s interest.”

Despite numerous calls since it entered office, VAT, which currently stands at 16%, has not been reduced. Instead, government has removed the tax from selected food items.