The governing body for local chartered accountants is urging Government to pay taxpayers their due.
While pointing to positive aspects of Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler’s ministerial statement delivered in the House of Assembly last week, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados (ICAB) said tax refunds needed to be paid.
In a statement in response to Sinckler’s presentation, ICAB said: “We call on the Government to promptly address the issue of long outstanding tax refunds due to taxpayers for VAT and Income Tax.”
“The fact that refunds are payable means that the Government has actually collected money in excess of what is due and is required by law to refund the taxpayer. The arrears in refund payments, especially VAT, by Government are creating cash flow problems for several businesses and individuals,” it added.
ICAB said the ministerial statement “provided a useful status report on the implementation and impact of policies previously presented”.
“It was also an indication that the major policy changes under consideration have been deferred until the Budget in 2015. We note the progress made in reducing the Government’s fiscal deficit, especially the fact that some fiscal good order has returned and this year Government’s current expenditure is expected to be less than its revenue, that is, a primary surplus as compared to the large primary deficit of -5.6 per cent of GDP in fiscal year 2013/2014,” ICAB said.
“This will eliminate the need to raise loans to meet current expenditure which had to be done over the past few years and has had an overall negative effect on our debt levels and increased our debt service requirement, which for fiscal year 2013/2014 was 27.4 per cent of Government revenue as compared to 13.9 per cent in fiscal year 2007/2008.
