The PLP Government is losing the public relations battle over Value-Added Tax (VAT) through its “cloak and dagger” tactics, a leading businessman warning yesterday he had to believe the Nassau Institute study’s conclusions in the absence of other evidence.
Echoing some of the conclusions from that report, Dionisio D’Aguilar, Superwash’s president, told Tribune Business it was impossible for VAT not to increase inflation given its likely impact on prices.
And he added that with the Government said to be targeting $200 million in extra revenues from VAT, that sum represented monies that would be sucked away from consumers and the private sector – the productive areas of the economy – simply to fill the multi-million dollar fiscal deficit.
The Nassau Institute report, produced by a former Canadian Revenue Agency auditor, estimated that VAT’s implementation would result in a net $165 million decline in the Government’s total annual revenues.
Source: The Tribune
