Not only will local hotels get the sweeping tax concessions landed by the Jamaican hotel chain Sandals, they will be a permanent feature for the sector.
Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler made this promise yesterday during a media briefing at the Dover, Christ Church property of Sandals International Resorts, accompanied by Jamaican hotel magnate Gordon “Butch” Stewart and Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy.
Sinckler told reporters: “The concessions which people talked about, they will get them. In fact, I spoke with Minister Sealy only this afternoon at lunch and we agreed that by next week we will try to get that out.”
He added: “We live in an instant coffee society. Everybody wants things done now. My thing is not to do things now but to do things properly and . . . what we are going to do for hoteliers in Barbados, for tourism operators, is not a transient waving of the pen or signing of a document by the Minister of Finance under 67 (b) of the Income Tax Act.
“The concessions which Sandals got, all the others will get but they will get it permanently, in permanent legislation that they call on each and every time they require it rather than having to write the Minister of Finance every other time they’re doing upgrades to a property to get it.”
He said the aid package for the tourism sector “took a little longer than we wanted” but “when it is delivered, there is no second guessing about what is being delivered and we expect, confidently, that it will shift this industry around in a way that people have not seen for many, many years”. (TY)
