A number of avid readers of The Anguillian have reached out to us, the national newspaper, to quietly express their views about the impending Goods and Services Tax and prefer to remain anonymous.
Their views are nonetheless important and add significantly to those openly expressed by other persons, as part of the ongoing GST debate. These anonymous views are as follows:
Commentator No. 1
“I am very concerned about GST because it is premised on the need to raise more money, in other words, to extract more money from the local population – a population that has suffered a category 5 hurricane in 2007, the likes of which we have not recovered as yet; and then to be followed by a global pandemic which has closed our borders for more than twelve months now. Obviously, with hurricane and pandemic, put together, there is no money coming into the country and therefore people cannot afford to pay any more taxes. So if you come up with a taxation measure that is designed to take more money from these same victimised people that, to my mind, is unconscionable at this point in time; and, as somebody said in the UK Parliament, it almost seems morally bankrupt to come up with such an idea. People here need relief measures – not increased taxation – not to be punished any further.
“Secondly, the whole notion that you can raise another 75 million dollars from a tax in an economy that is closed off with no foreign direct investment coming in is ludicrous. It is impossible. That money is not here. If you emptied everybody’s houses and pockets, you still won’t find the 75 million dollars. So you have to come up with another means of closing this gap; and it has been staring us in the face for years. The Government has been too large. There are too many people on Government’s payroll and too people actually working for Government. In other words, there are too many people sitting in offices with nothing to do, but they are on the payroll. These are the things that we need to start addressing in order to reduce the cost of living; reduce the cost of Government. The salary structure, in a place like Anguilla – 15,000 people, 35 square miles – is just out of order.
“St. Lucia is the largest OECS economy and population in the Eastern Caribbean. Their Prime Minister works for something like 12,000 dollars a month. Ours take home a salary of 20-something thousand dollars a month. It is no way we can sustain that. There is no way that can be justifiable based on the size of the economy and the size of the population. We actually pay some of our retired politicians more money than some Premiers in other countries are working for currently. How can we continue with this? These are the things we need to address if we are ever going to get close to balance our budget. The British have been suggesting that we needed to increase our tax base, but they haven’t suggested that we need to expand our economy. They haven’t given us any assistance along those lines. If we expand and improve the economic activity on the island, then the existing taxes that are on the books will raise the revenues we need to balance the budget along with downsizing and cost-cutting measures. I can’t see anything else working.
“The GST would be a fiasco. You are now going to put money in the hands of merchants to collect for Government and then you are going to depend on them to give you the correct amount of money that they collect on your behalf. You have seen what has happened at Cap Juluca and some of the other places with respect to the Accommodation Tax – some of which has been written off to the tune of millions of dollars? This was money collected on behalf of Government – not taxation –and Government never got it. Now, you are giving that over to all the merchants who signed on to your GST programme. This is culturally inappropriate and is not going to work basically, in my view. It is going to create upheaval in the business community. It will drive some businesses out of business and it will criminalise other people for their inability to manage such a complex system. Why go there? I think we ought not to do it and should think again.”
Commentator No. 2
“GST came about when England was joining the Common Market and the taxation involving Germany, England, France and others was to have gone away. So they said we import a lot of stuff and we are not going to get any taxes on the stuff going out and coming in; so they came up with Goods and Services Tax but they call it Value Add Tax over in England. They are getting a tax off the end of the cost of the goods and all the freight charges and the persons selling the goods are getting their percentage off the top of all of that, thus inflating the cost… There are other ways to collect the tax. It is just like in your business you try to keep your staff and expenses small and maximise your profit.
“The Government is expanding where we will have to get a whole new department and we will have to hire another fifty people to collect this money. What’s the use? It will be gone just paying staff. Duty is a bad word in the world today. I don’t care if it is a bad word. Increase the duty: put 5% or 10% more on it. With the same people collecting it, the more profit the Government will make to maintain the roads, buy this and do that and pay their own way. Why bring on a whole extra staff? To do it right they will have to monitor everybody’s inventory…”
“There are so many ways for Government to make money. Look at all these Japanese cars coming in. You go online you can buy one of those Marches that everybody is running around in for 800 bucks. Pay another 1500 bucks and you got it here. They are brought in here with six in a container at a time and how much the Government makes on them? Peanuts. Forget the duty then. Charge a landing fee for the car and when it is licenced, the fee is 2,000 bucks. You make more money. You don’t have to create another department just to collect that money. Nobody is looking at maximising their profit by bringing down their staff. To me, GST is just going to ruin business in Anguilla because is going to make prices higher. And the Government is putting the onus on collecting the money on the merchants… and they will be just screwing us over.
“I am going to ‘bum’ a ferryboat ride to the Dutch side of St. Maarten and buy what I want without GST on it. So where is that going to leave the local merchant? The Government needs to get together with the merchants and figure out something, but GST is not the answer. I suggest that they go up on the duty. They are making villains of their merchants…”
Commentator No. 3
“The timing for GST is not good and I think that it will be a disaster for a small island like Anguilla. It will kill small businesses. The administrative structure that needs to be in place will make business less efficient, more time-consuming and very frustrating so I am not in favour it at any time at all – not just now, but at any time. Our revenue sources are weak. We need to find alternative and better sources of revenue, but the Goods and Services Tax is not a way to go.
“Secondly, I think it is important for the people of Anguilla to understand that tax avoidance is a big thing. If you put the Goods and Services Tax into operation, many of the small villas and so on will die a natural death; and many persons in Anguilla, who have contacts abroad, will avoid paying the tax by letting those funds stay abroad, other than come through the airport where we can tax them. So we are going to lose on that front too. Secondly, the administrative structure to be in place is going to take up all the revenue – the staffing we have to recruit; to pay; the record-keeping and so – will be enormous and we do not have a sufficient infrastructure to do that. Finally, the people of Anguilla must say to the leadership of the island: find alternative sources which are more profitable and better able to provide good taxes. As I said, I am not in favour of the Goods and Services Tax and I think it is not about not introducing it now. It should be put away. Go back to the British, save the dilemma we are in; and work out alternatives. Go to the Caribbean Development Bank and so forth and ask them what kind of technical assistance they can give us, but not the Gods and Services Tax.”
Commentator No. 4:
“Our Government, boards and oblivious technocrats, more than doubled spending and the tax burden from 204 to 2008 for the same services and population ($95-209) million – just before the global recession. After stabilising at $190 by 201, they kept taxing and spending up to $240 million. From exorbitant duties and fees on all e buy and eat, to property, electricity, phone, internet, fuel and levy taxes, to dozens of increasing port and licensing fees, every family, merchant and service provider is already struggling to pay twice as much tax from the same income in a flat, fragile tourism economy, battered by Irma and Covid. Now, they want more? We must return to 2014 efficiencies, implement sustainable fiscal alternatives, commit all savings to pay our debt, and repeal GST. It is a cultural abomination born of years of excess and capricious oversight.”
Commentator No. 5
“Small businesses have always been the heartbeat of Anguilla. They have proven resilient and flexible in times of hardship and stay afloat. They are run in a personable manner and do not require a formal education to start. Anguillians have always been entrepreneurs because they have been let to operate in a free and flexible manner that suits their temperament. It has made a proud people. I personally experienced operating within a GST. System while operating a small business outside of Anguilla and here are my observations.
“I can say that for a small business, it will add a minimum of 30 minutes to one hour f restrictive, laborious book-keeping work every day for as long as the business operates.
“For many, this will mean having to learn how to operate a system that will be imposed by the Government/Inland Revenue. Many a potential entrepreneur in Anguilla might not be savvy at book-keeping or drawn to this future of daily red tape drudgery and will turn away from starting his/her own official business. Who wishes to have to live with the burden of inspectors having the right to meddle in and judge your books whenever they choose?
“It will be an incentive for our youth and all future entrepreneurs to operate in an unprofessional manner so as to stay below the GST radar.
“It will remove the incentive to perform to high standards and a professional manner and then you will be obliged to register into the GST system.
“Extra GST operating costs cause the prices of your services to be uncompetitive, making it difficult to compete against those who will operate their business in a vague manner so as to remain below the GST radar.
“It will promote an end result of mediocre business standards in Anguilla and could even negatively affect our national proud.
“Why is it that the Government of Anguilla budget always goes up? What is the root cause? Where are their examples of cutting back on costs? Why should this be about raising more money and a bigger budget?
“Let us hear the Government of Anguilla’s ideas on how they are going to cut their expenses. How can they possibly justify that their expenses should remain or increase, with every man, woman and child in Anguilla having to pay for them? Should they not be asking themselves, asking their conscience, if imposing GST is really the right choice to be making?
“The Government of Anguilla tries to appease the business community by pointing out that for them, it will not be so bad as they can claim back GST, so who will be the biggest loser? The GST will cause inflation on everything in the overall cost of living to be paid by those who are already stretched to their limit.
“Presently, Governments all over the world are helping the businesses and the unfortunate. The UK Government should not be able to impose this GST upon us. They should be helping us to get back on our feet. It is the Government of Anguilla’s job to get them to help us, not hinder us.”
Commentator No. 6
“At a time in the history of Anguilla when we should be celebrating the legacy of the Father of the Nation and the Leaders of the Revolution, we are being faced with a mandate from the UK that is unconscionable at its core.
“We are being fed a narrative of being somewhat of a stalemate, but there is nothing further from the truth! Why would the leaders of the day be even willing to consider such a bargain? To think that they are very ones who pledged to bring hope and change would dare to perpetrate this against the people of Anguilla, the very thing they accused the former administration of, is hypocritical at best and narcissistic at its core.
“We do not need another handout from the British. If we were to stay quiet and accept GST, then that pittance is finished…The stark reality is that the masses have nothing to give. We don’t need GST. What we need is to use the years of research, the plethora of ideas and the wealth of opportunities that are right now before us…
“For the love of God, for the future of Anguilla, for our children born and unborn, we say NO to GST.”
Commentary No. 7
“I am not sure if everyone understands what GST means. It is VAT everything, added to our bill. The cost of living in Anguilla is high as it is. With this tax things will get even harder at a time when we all need help. If we do not get that help, things will get harder. The money we will have to pay out to even start this will be a lot, from computerised bills, to having an accountant to do our taxes for us. Just when we think these times are hard, they are about to get harder. Please stop this GST now.”
