'Is the Port broke?' Hon. Fahie on raising departure tax
The former Minister for Education and Culture, speaking in the House of Assembly today, July 25, 2013 said he believes the tax increase is being instituted at a time when the harshness of the downturn in the economy is being felt especially by the ordinary man.
“Let me ask this question. What is the purpose behind the raising of the fees at this time? Is the port broke? Is it that the Port is moving towards going to do some projects and the money has to be geared towards those projects?” questioned Hon. Fahie.
Meanwhile, Second District Representative Hon. J. Alvin Christopher disapproved of the proposal to raise the departure tax. “Madam speaker, I don’t know if I have the power and authority to tell the government not to raise taxes but his scheduled change is one that is troubling a lot of people,” commented Hon. Christopher on the move my Government to impose or vary rates, fees other changes and to grant exemptions with respect to rates, fees or other changes of the Statutory Rates, Fees and Changes Act, 2005 (No. 28 of 2005).
Hon. Christopher also said he disapproved of the discriminatory process of the tax between residents and non-residents since the Territory is heavily dependent on tourism. “I think that if you are going to raise taxes we should make it equally across the board because we don’t want to be in a position where we discriminating against our guests who are coming to visit us and I believe that we should apply fairness across the board in whatever form or fashion.”
He made it clear that he was not saying that it was necessary to raise the taxes but if it is to be done it must be done in a fashion that does not gives the impression that there is some level of discrimination against persons.
Premier Dr the Honourable D. Orlando Smith alluded to two ways revenues can be raised to provide service to the country. “One way is by through inward investment, encouraging investor to come so that more money can come into the country. The other way, Madam Speaker, is through raising fees or taxes in some way,” said the Premier.
Dr Smith stressed that if Government is to continue to spend without more money coming into the Treasury there would soon be no more money to spend, which would likely create a situation where persons would not be paid for work done and Government would not be able to provide the services that are necessary for the people of the Territory.
Territorial At Large Representative, Hon. Archibald C. Christian and Sixth District Representative, Hon. Alvera Maduro-Caines also made their input to the debate as they sought to justify the increase. Both said they didn’t feel that a different tax for non-residents was discriminatory in that countries in the Caribbean and other parts of the world have also varied their taxes that way.
The House of Assembly is currently in committee stage.
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23 Responses to “'Is the Port broke?' Hon. Fahie on raising departure tax”
We need VIP back !!!
It's basically the same concept here. The financial sector is about to take a hit and the tourism sector is also weak. Therefore, the Government have to find other means of generating revenue. Without revenue, government can not function.
This is common sense. Do we really need NDP or VIP to spell this out for us???
It is inevitable. Unfortunately, it is happening at the worst possible time. In my opinion, this should have been implemented during the time of plenty. Maybe, just maybe, things would have been been better now.
Where are the computers you promised everyone in your district?
Just let us know. Are you honoring that promise or not?
People are getting tired of me asking so please let them out of their misery and say no I will not deliver what I promised or start to open the packages and get people using Fahie's computers.
Government had excellent opportunities to have the Cruise ship pier built at little expense to us but they rather to play strong and refuse to let Disney and NCCL to foot the development. They have the airport expansion as top priority but instead of putting the burden of the cost of the expansion on the real beneficiaries, it is placed on the tax payers. Lets take a real close look at this airport expansion. Do we have the infrastructure to facilitate an international airport9 With the major airlines being set with their existing schedules at the other islands, which one is going to make Tortola a daily stop? We would be lucky to get a weekly flight as our population would not support the need for a daily stop. The real reason for this extension is to allow the bigger private jets to be able to come. At the moment the private jets that are allowed to land here is only a small segment. The rest land in St. Martin as their insurance would not allow them to land on our short runway. The government needs to tell the whole truth and not have people believing that some big airline going come in and make Beef Island a hub. It is too late for us to compete with the other islands that have already promoted that aspect of their market.
People wants to know they are not put into a discriminating bracket when the see things like, Local pay 5dollars departure tax, foreigners pay 20dollars in departure tax. Can you compare this with any discriminating bracket, oh yes , watch this blacks use this toilet, white us that toilet, No blacks eat here, Whites only. It is the same just move a bit in another direction. If I can think of it, compare it, then it have hundred of others is doing the same. Let invite our guest to come to our island in a pleasant way. I suggest to move the tax to ten dollars across the board.