A series of public consultations is now underway in Anguilla on the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST), in preparation for the first reading of the legislation in the House of Assembly, coming up soon afterwards.
The first of the consultations was held in the parliamentary building on Tuesday evening, March 16, and was for the wholesale and retail sector. The next consultation, on March 23, will be for the hospitality sector. The service sector will be on March 30; and the consultation for the fishing, farming and public entertainment sectors will be on April 6. The venue for the consultations is the Anguilla House of Assembly.
During Tuesday’s lively question and answer period, a business person asked the Premier and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ellis Webster:
“Is there a reason why we are going to push through with the first reading before we even get to the thresholds of the various matters of information that we are trying to get at? Why can’t that reading be held back until this important information is given to the public so that we have an idea of what we are dealing with?”
Premier Webster replied: “Yes, there is a reason. There is the funding deadline with the British Government of March 31st of every year. There is a variation on the MOU, that was signed back in June of 2020, that allows us to extend the financial aid of 30 million dollars for COVID relief up to March 31st. There is also a Caribbean Development Bank policy-based loan that we have to get, and that certainly has a timeline to it; and to get that loan we have to meet certain requirements. One of the requirements is the GST legislation.”
Other questions by the same person were:
“Are we taking into account the increases [in taxes] that we have incurred over the past six weeks, along with implementing the GST on the first of next year? Are we taking into account the kind of financial impact it is going to have on us, the consumers..? All we are asking is for more time.”
The Premier responded: “We have asked for time for it [the GST] to be deferred. We know that fees had to be raised so that certain essential services have to be provided. You either raise the fees or give more subventions – essentially as taxes. That’s how the Government gets the money to give subventions to the Health Authority, to AASPA [the Anguilla Air and Sea Ports Authority] and to the Water Corporation. We still would be back here, talking about increasing taxes, if we didn’t ask for those increases.
“We have ANGLEC to look at holding back on increasing the fuel surcharge, although ANGLEC has taken big hits. It has given moratoriums on the payment of utility bills. It suffered a lot of losses after Hurricane Irma. These are all considerations that we have. We care about the people of Anguilla, and we want to do what is best to keep Anguilla on track to provide the services that are necessary.
“When it comes to the hospital, we have to provide care. We have increased maintenance costs with the buildings we have inherited post Hurricane Irma. The lab has increased the services that are necessary because persons now cannot leave to go to St. Maarten and elsewhere to get medical care…When we gave permission for these fees to be raised we didn’t do it in a vacuum – and just because we want to impose this on the people of Anguilla.”
Speaking further on the GST which is intended to be implemented in January, 2021, Premier Webster stressed that his administration had asked the British Government “To push back the implementation date.”
He went on: “We understand the concerns. We know what the impact will be and that’s where we are at…If we don’t get the Caribbean Development Bank’s policy-based loan of 20 million dollars this year, we will be basically looking at cutting public service salaries by 30%. If we don’t get the 30 million dollars that the UK Government has promised up to March 31st, in financial aid for COVID-related relief, then we will be looking at another 30 million dollars that we have to raise somehow – or we have to make cuts. So just think about the economic decimation that would cause if we have to come up with 70 million dollars this year which is a shortfall – not even thinking about next year. And so, these are the things which we, as a Government, elected by the people, have to take into consideration. We have to make sure that when it is all said and done that we have caused the least damage possible.
“COVID-19 has basically wiped out our economy with a 93.9% decline in tourism. Hurricane Irma wiped out our economy in 2017 and we have never recovered from that. But we know that in January and February of 2020 that tourism had increased more than it had been in any other period of January and February before, so we know we have potential.
“We are working on that potential and once we get past this immediate impact of COVID, and people are vaccinated, we can open up our borders and have people coming in. We will then have some recovery and people will go back to work. The one thousand dollars we are paying every month to persons who have been impacted by not being able to work, will run out and we are now extending it until May 31st. We have some money left to do that but, after that, if we want to continue it, something else will have to be cut.”
