The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Tax Coalition’s co-chair yesterday said it was the “slow release” of Value-Added Tax (VAT) details by the Government that had delayed public feedback, with the private sector body now poised to move on its own economic impact studies.

Robert Myers, responding to comments by Michael Halkitis, minister of state for finance, who blamed the delay on bringing the VAT legislation to Parliament on late feedback from the public, said the Coalition had long drawn attention to the fact the Government was behind its own roll-out schedule by several months.

“I would say the slow release of the regulations and legislation. We’re no more delayed than they are,” said Mr Myers, when informed of Mr Halkitis’s comments, noting that these were supposed to have been released to the public last summer, not in November.

The Coalition for Responsible Taxation’s co-chair told Tribune Business that, with the revised Tariff Schedule still not released and the Government’s economic modelling based on historical data, it was impossible to “really assess what impact VAT is going to have on the economy”.

Mr Myers described the Government’s economic model, crafted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), as “a static model based on historical data, not projections. It’s more accounting than economic projections”.

The Coalition is due to meet with the Office of the Prime Minister today, in a bid to obtain the official data necessary to conduct its own dynamic VAT economic modelling, with a focus on the likely impact the proposed tax will have on consumers, businesses and the wider economy.

“We have now raised the funds for the dynamic economic modelling analysis, and hope to have their co-operation and collaboration on it,” Mr Myers told Tribune Business.

“We’re about to put out, now that we’ve raised some money, a proper Request for Proposal (RFP), with specifics, and are looking for whatever reputable economists are available and up to the task to do the work quickly.”

With the Government still pressing forward as if VAT’s July 1 implementation is a done deal, the Coalition will have to move quickly on work that could justify the imposition of tax alternatives.

Acknowledging that the Government was under external pressures to implement VAT and transform its fiscal position, Mr Myers said there was no reason to wait until July 1 to begin the needed reforms.

Suggesting that some of the Coalition’s alternatives could be implemented now, he added: “We can make some headway and show the Government is serious on another front, cutting costs and shrinking expenditure.

“We’re trying to do the responsible thing, and encourage the Government to do the same. Work with the private sector and the people to make the right decision.”

Mr Myers added, though, that without the economic modelling, it was impossible to draw “parallels” between the Bahamas and other Caribbean nations that had implemented VAT.