Huge Hikes In Customs Duties, Excise Taxes And Value Added Tax Rates: CAUSE FOR CONCERN IN T&T
Government Told Reduce Shipping Charges To Precovid-19 Rates.
There is a suggestion the government should follow Guyana’s example in reverting to pre-Covid-19 Cost, Insurance and Freight charges on shipped goods.
This is in order to ease financial burdens on consumers and importers.
The proposal comes from Opposition Member of Parliament for Mayaro and Opposition Spokesperson on Trade and Industry, Rushton Paray.
MP Paray said astronomical increases in shipping costs, as a result of supply chain challenges, have led to huge hikes in customs duties, excise taxes and Value Added Tax rates.
MP Paray claimed as a result, shipping costs for a twenty-foot container have typically escalated from US three thousand dollars to as much as US fifteen thousand dollars and a forty-foot container has skyrocketed from US three thousand, five hundred dollars to US twenty-thousand dollars.
MP Paray said the increased costs are inevitably passed onto consumers, who are already battling job losses, small business closures, and other financial difficulties.
Photo: Opposition Member of Parliament for Mayaro and Opposition Spokesperson on Trade and Industry, Rushton Paray.