Government’s moratorium on proposed tax for luxury vehicles will be based on an assessment of how long it will take a vessel with cars, to arrive from Japan, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said yesterday.
Imbert confirmed this when asked if he had worked out how long the moratorium will be. He will announce the actual timeframe this afternoon when he speaks on the issue in Parliament. In Imbert’s April 8 mid-year review of the 2016 Budget, he announced a 50 per cent increase on luxury vehicles (engine size exceeding 1999 cc).
Last Thursday he said he had received enquiries from used and new car dealers affected by the proposal and he planned to have a moratorium to allow people to transition into the tax. He said the moratorium should be about two to three weeks and he would announce the timeframe today, when Parliament debates an order for these and other taxes prescribed in the review.
Yesterday, Imbert said he hadn’t made a final decision on the length of the moratorium, but it, “...will be based on an assessment of how long it will take the roll-on roll-off vessel, with cars, to arrive from Japan, starting from April 8 as the reference point.”
Last Thursday, he had said, apart from the intransit period of vehicles being imported, Government would also take into consideration, those vehicles not yet cleared from the Customs bond.
Today’s debate on the order for the increased taxes has to be passed within 21 days. It will be debated in the Senate tomorrow (Tuesday) and Thursday. Opposition MPs have signalled in debate, they’ll also be dealing with Government’s recent request for World Bank/IMF advice on revising fiscal policy.
Former People’s Partnership minister in the ministry of finance Vasant Bharath who - prior to Government’s announcement on the external expertise - had warned Government might “take the easy way out” and “put T&T in the IMF’s hands,” said exactly as predicted, “...Mr Imbert has taken the easy way out for him and his government but a potentially perilous direction for the population.”
“By seeking IMF and World Bank assistance, he has effectively relinquished his position as Finance Minister and acknowledged he’s incapable of putting together a meaningful, coherent plan for T&T’s economy and accepted the conclusions of the Moody’s Report that there’s a high likelihood that Government’s policy response to the commodity price shock will not be as timely and effective as required, due to weak policy execution capacity,” Bharath said.