Trinidad – CONFUSION reigned yesterday as grocers rushed to change prices in keeping with the new Value Added Tax (VAT) exemptions on food items.
They also complained the list was “quite confusing”.
A number of grocers in downtown Port of Spain said they were unclear on which items were to be changed because of the wording of the Government-issued list, and they had hoped for some type of Government consultation before today’s VAT-free deadline.
“Honestly, we are not too sure, but we are trying to generalise the items and change the prices,” said the grocery supervisor at FHS United Supermarket on Independence Square.
“There are a few things that seem to be duplicated, but when the list talks about products derived from some foods, we are not too clear on what products they are talking about,” she said.
Another grocery supervisor said they were concerned about not meeting the list in its entirety, due to this confusion, and stand to be accused of attempting to rob customers.
“We have heard from Ms Wendy Lee Yuen (chairman, Food Distributors Association) that there will be inspectors going around the groceries to check if we changed our prices,” the supervisor said.
“We hope we get everything right because we don’t want anyone saying we are being dishonest. This is why someone from the ministries should have started liaising with groceries from the time they made the announcement, to make sure we understand what we are doing,” she added.
Some foods mentioned on the list, such as mayonnaise, potatoes, onions and chicken sausages, were already VAT-free, the supervisor said.
“If you look around right now, you will see that people come here every evening and pick up basics—bread, sausage, cheese, tuna. There was no VAT on those things. So some people will not see the difference until they shop for groceries at month end.”
In the background, grocery workers were busy re-tagging shelves of goods and those customers in the shops at the time got a preview of what their grocery bills should look like from today. (Trinidad Express)
