A broad cross-section of importers, brokers, agents and other business persons in Anguilla held cordial discussions with Ministry of Finance and Customs officials on Wednesday, October 23. The interactive meeting was regarding the current platform for the introduction and restructuring of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Premier and Minister of Finance, Mr. Victor Banks, told the business persons that the intentions of the Government of Anguilla were to introduce a GST platform in the first place.
“I call it a platform because we have not yet moved into GST, but we are preparing for this new tax structure as we believe it is in the best interest of all concerned – the importers and the economy on a whole,” he explained.
Mr. Banks stressed that the GST was also the way the world was going in terms of the facilitation of trade. He pointed out that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) believed that issues, where there were high levels of customs duty, impede the fairness of competition in trade throughout the world. The GST was something that the WTO had recommended.
The Premier went on: “The Government of Anguilla wanted to make sure that in this phase it [the GST] is revenue neutral. This means that whatever measures are put in place [in terms of] the various fees do not amount to any increase in price to the importer or the consumer. That’s the intent and purpose.
“The implementation creates certain perks that we have to iron out so that we can get to what the intended goal and purpose is, over a period of time. We expect that it will take over a three to six-month period for us to ensure that anomalies are clarified and that there are ways in which we can engage stakeholders – customers, brokers and importers.”
Mr. Grenville A. John, one of the Government’s consultants for the past seven months, in explaining how the GST would operate, said that Anguilla was ten years behind in implementing the tax system.
Others at the head table, to lead the discussions, included Principal Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Dr. Wycliffe Fahie; Comptroller of Customs, Mr. Travis Carty; and Deputy Comptroller, Mr. Giovani Francisco.
