Minister of Trade and Industry Paula Gopee-Scoon and members of the Consumer Affairs Division visited supermarkets on Monday to see how well governments instructions to remove value added tax (VAT) from newly zero-rated items had been implemented.
The ministry's team, accompanied by president of the Supermarket Association (SATT) Rajiv Diptee and CEO of Massy Stores Roxanne De Freitas, visited Massy Stores' branch at Trincity Industrial Estate on Monday.
Gopee-Scoon said the government has estimated the VAT reduction will cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
“We thought as a government that, at this time, the public needs relief.”
She added that the supermarkets visited on Monday had all been in removing VAT from the newly zero-rated items.
In the recent 2021/2022 budget, Finance Minister Colm Imbert announced several measures to assist the public, including exemptions on basic food items from VAT. These items include biscuits, cooking oil, canned vegetables, fish and meat, cornflakes, curry, juice, sausages and ham, ketchup, bottled water and pigtail.
“As you enter the store, there is an explanation that at the counter the reduction will be implemented. In any event, consumer affairs staff has been in the field, and they have done about 32 supermarkets over the weekend. They will be going back out to check those supermarkets, (and) the ministry will report to the public.”
She said she was concerned there may be distributers who were not complying.
“In other words, they will do it today, but not in two weeks. Consumer Affairs will continue to check them.”
She said the government was aware of global food inflation and, based on its research, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN reported a food price index of 30 per cent higher than last year, and the Central Bank has quoted 4.9 per cent food-price inflation.
“While it has been contained in TT, there are still factors causing prices to increase. We are still heavily dependent on imports. There have been global supply-chain disruptions (and) production is being stalled during the pandemic. We know prices have increased this past year. This is quite significant.”
[caption id="attachment_922160" align="alignnone" width="717"] From left: Massy Stores CEO Roxane De Freitas, Supermarket Association president Rajiv Diptee and Trade and Industry Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon at Massy Stores, Trincity Industrial Estate, Monday. - SUREASH CHOLAI[/caption]
She said the ministry is going a step further and approaching the Council of Trade and Economic Development (COTED) for duty relief on 20 more items, including cheddar cheese, milk, and refined sugar.
Diptee said many of the members of his association are concerned about their brands and maintaining their public integrity, and so irresponsible retailers who do not comply with the VAT reduction will be reported to Consumer Affairs.
De Freitas said the VAT reduction will certainly help consumers.
“At Massy, what we did was upload the new pricing around midnight and we are in the pr
