The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG 

and LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporters

SIX months after the government removed VAT on unprepared food, shoppers in New Providence say they are not seeing the savings at the checkout, and several believe food stores have raised prices to claw them back.

VAT on unprepared food fell from five percent to zero on April 1. That completed a cut that began in April 2025, when the rate was halved from ten percent. When Prime Minister Philip Davis announced the change in January, he said eliminating the tax entirely was meant to ensure consumers felt the savings immediately.

Outside food stores in New Providence yesterday, few shoppers said they had.

"I don't see much of a difference, and it's ridiculous," said a mother of two shopping at Xtra Value in Oakes Field. "In some cases, prices have actually gone up."

She said she spends about $300 a week on groceries.

Muriet Seymour, 68, a retiree shopping at Super Value on Nassau Street, said she felt prices had increased, not decreased. She said it made her wonder whether stores had raised their prices on purpose after VAT was removed.

Ms Seymour said almost all her income goes on food. She said everything is outrageously priced, and that fruit is so expensive that eating healthily costs a fortune.

"You must have another income in order to survive, just to go to the grocery store," she said.

Living on her National Insurance pension has been rough, Ms Seymour said, and she did not know how retirees with a mortgage could manage. She suggested the government meet food store owners. She said she did not know how prices could be brought down, but that for people on minimum wage, they were outrageous.

Nickesha Matthew estimated that prices had risen by about 10 percent since VAT was removed, including on meat. She said she is on a budget and now buys only what she needs.

Another Super Value shopper, who asked to be identified only as Jay, said she believed the rise was a mix of inflation and stores increasing prices, particularly on meat and eggs. She said she buys groceries to avoid the cost of fast food, but grocery shopping now costs about as much as eating out.

A man shopping at Xtra Value, who asked not to be named, said the stores make up elsewhere for whatever the government takes off.

"If the government tries to bring down the price of one thing," he said, "the food stores try to find other ways to hike the prices of something else."

He said breadbasket items in particular could come down further.

A woman who has lived in the Fort Charlotte area for 17 years, also shopping at Xtra Value, said she shops for three people and spends $90 to $105 on what amounts to one bag of groceries. She said she had seen no change since VAT was removed and agreed that store owners could be raising prices.

Outside a convenience store in Oakes Field, a man said stores were raising prices on the items people like most, because they know people have to buy them, while leaving other prices unchanged. He said prices were far higher than when he used to shop years ago, and that the government could do more.

"They will talk a good talk," he said, "but nothing else will be done."

At Solomon's Fresh Market in Harbour Bay, one shopper said canned goods had gone up. She said she buys some items there because she earns a little credit on her card, but she shops around and goes to Super Value for others.

Sharon Rolle said the government needs to make significant changes to help communities.

"People really suffering right now, and they don't know where to turn or where to go," she said. "The government needs to really kind of step up."

Before the change took effect, retailers warned that under the new "exempt" treatment they could no longer recover VAT paid on their own costs. One grocery merchant estimated it could raise non-staff costs by seven to eight percent, and some warned this could lead to higher prices on goods not under price control.

Finance Minister Michael Halkitis rejected claims that supermarkets would be forced to raise prices. He said the policy would mean lower prices for consumers and better conditions for efficient businesses.

On April 1, the government's consumer affairs unit sent inspectors into stores to check that VAT had been removed at the till. Mr Halkitis has previously acknowledged, however, that the Government can monitor only the roughly two dozen items on the price control list.