THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF) gave Barbados one of the highest pass marks for the implementation of the value added tax (VAT), former prime minister Owen Arthur said. He told the MIDWEEK NATION that the analysis was conducted by IMF experts and the results showed that Barbados bypassed the required 65 pass mark with a score of 101.1, surpassed only by Singapore (107.9) and New Zealand (103.2).
“An international benchmark was applied to indicate when a country has developed a VAT properly and has been successful in implementing it,” Arthur said, referring to an IMF publication called The Modern VAT.
He said too that Barbados was used as a success model when The Bahamas was considering the implementation of VAT two years ago.
“The VAT in Barbados has been seen as a success,” he said yesterday.
Arthur who has taken issue with Governor of the Central Bank, Dr DeLisle Worrell’s harsh criticism of VAT added: “This man (Worrell) is flying into the face of scientific analysis by institutions unlike him who don’t have an axe to grind.”
“Our experience with the VAT is something that we can hold up, not in a mess, but as something we can hold with pride. (TS)
