The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE Government’s Value-Added Tax (VAT) roll-out is “out of sync”, a leading private sector executive said yesterday, charging that its public relations campaign in the absence of legislation and regulations was “creating hysteria in the marketplace”.

Businessman Robert Myers, co-chairman of the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation’s (BCCEC) Tax Coalition, told Tribune Business: “I think that starting the public relations side of this campaign has created a lot of anxiety in the public.

“That anxiety would not be there if we understood the legislation, the regulations and we knew what the tariff schedule was. We would understand what the economic impact would be long-term, and what the long-term price increase would be.

“We would know if it was going to create an inflationary environment or not, but we don’t know those things because that information isn’t there. In my opinion, and that of the Coalition, it’s gotten out of sync and that is creating this hysteria in the marketplace.”

Mr Myers said the new tariff schedule was extremely important to Bahamian importers.

“You have to know what you’re going to lower your cost to, or equal to, to see what impact that’s going to have on the cost of goods to the consumer. If we don’t know that, how does the Government make the statement that it’s not going to have an inflationary impact?” Mr Myers asked.

“It’s not an easy subject, it’s a complex issue. Changing the way that you tax your citizens isn’t that easy. You have issues with the economy, issues with compliance, the rule of law, accountability and productivity.

“We have gotten to this point because of a lack of attention to some of those things. It took a long time getting here, and it’s going to take a while to get out of it. We owe it to ourselves to find these solutions and work together. It’s our collective problem. This isn’t a government or business sector problem, it’s our collective problem.”