Saturday, October 13, 2012

VAT’s Teething Problems

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15 comments:

Anonymous said...

The trouble is -- and this is most amusing and infuriating sometimes -- that the VAT officials are at times very busy trying to explain, what they themselves clearly do not understand! And this goes for the PM too, whose communications greatly depend on those confused and confusing 'experts'.

October 13, 2012 at 1:52 PM
Anonymous said...

This Implementation Team is inept in skills and lost in knowledge of VAT. A body of persons given 4 years to implement a project can not get it right do they want 10 years.

October 13, 2012 at 2:53 PM
Anonymous said...

Up to now, I gather that the VAT implementation is way beyond the tether of most public and private sector individuals.

There is still scope to benchmark, what up to the present has been the most seamless transition to the VAT anywhere in the Caribbean, namely, the Barbados experience.

To ease the pain, the strain, and the burden of our false start, we can invite some of those actors in the government sector in Barbados to come over and advise on how they did theirs.

It is not too late; I firmly believe that it will be worth every red cent spent.

October 13, 2012 at 3:28 PM
Anonymous said...

Even the PM armed they say, with some three law degrees does not seem to appreciate the rule of law, as this pertains to the VAT.

If this were not so, the head of the VAT implementation office would not be sounding like a god damn provincial Chinese politicial party figure, interpreting the law as if this were an adhocracy.

That the VAT legislation is sufficiently vague to allow for multiple interpretations is rather unfortunate.

The PM's several law degrees appear of be of little value here.

Stupid me. There I was labouring under the false impression that interpretation of the law was the province of the judicial branch.

In backward third-world countries and authoritarian societies like Communist China and ours, the government machinery and figure-heads are the embodiment of law. Anything goes and any odd thing goes.

Acceptable practices associated with business law are being thrown by the wayside.

Where is the leadership that is supposed to emerge out of all those frigging law degrees?

October 13, 2012 at 8:48 PM
Anonymous said...

please people, lets not talk about what we are not knowledgeable about. The implementation of vat has always had teething problems. That goes for Barbados, Grenada, or wherever it has been implemented. Some links to read:

1. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCsQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.caricom.org%2Fjsp%2Fcommunity%2Fcota%2Fgeneral_assembly%2F17cota_vat_implementation_dos_santos.ppt&ei=F856UKOUEuyH0QH-zIHoDA&usg=AFQjCNHsN7_IA0MfjCETrr90jOacZSZbbQ&cad=rja

2. http://books.google.com/books?id=hq0aGc8pOEUC&pg=PA236&lpg=PA236&dq=implementation+of+vat+in+the+caribbean&source=bl&ots=JdYTrU_ADI&sig=IUD47ebm_-IQgkSjGIHW0ql4bSc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=F856UKOUEuyH0QH-zIHoDA&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=implementation%20of%20vat%20in%20the%20caribbean&f=false

I believe if you think you are able to do better then step up . . . educate the public. A person who only criticizes without making any positive recommendation(s) is just pulling the wool over the eyes of the ignorant.

October 14, 2012 at 7:52 AM
Anonymous said...

Rubbish. You hear rubbish!
This up there is nothing more than a ready-made quadriplegic excuse; this excuse was on life support long before the writer even penned it.
I was in Barbados, when they implemented their VAT. There was not the mess of confusion that we are experiencing here.
What we have here more like the shambles that characterized the Jamaican VAT experience.
St. Lucia is one of the last countries in the OECS or CARICOM implement a VAT. No?
Yes, the other countries had problems. But darn it! Must we repeat the MISTAKES that the other countries have made?
What about learning from the mistakes others? As a country boasting two Nobel prize winners, is this beyond us?

And don't ask ordinary citizens to the work for what MPs and so-called consultants are being highly paid to do!

For example, the Leader of the Opposition's role appears to be only to collect a salary and build up his pension and retirement while serially repeating inanities in the press without a darn clue about how government actually works.

Why not ask this shyster for recommendations?

The PM has three darn law degress! How comes it that he is presiding over a shambles that is the piece of VAT legislation? Any recommendations for, or from him?

October 14, 2012 at 11:46 AM
Ezar Dollin said...

There is nothing wrong with the implementation of the VAT. Saint Lucians understand the situation very well. what is happening is all politics.Those who pretend not to understand it, and i am talking about our business people, are just being mischievious.

VAT is easily explainable. despite all the talk by the anonymous writers, not one of them have shown where the problem lies with each sector of the country.
The anonymous writers claimed that the implementation of VAT is causing a problem. Read all the remarks by the faceless bloggers, they have yet to identify one problem.
They blame the prime minister and his labour party yet they cannot identify one problem to justify the removal of the vat or its postponement for the next three months.

now we beginning to understand why this country is going nowhere. all those faceless people do is wait for an article to come out and criticise. they have no solutions, and can identify nothing to make things better.

October 14, 2012 at 12:50 PM
Anonymous said...

We are now beginning to understand why LAME EXCUSES NO LONGER CUT IT!

The people of this country are tired of taking it on the chin as well-paid individuals and officials can only provide lame excuses for SERIAL FINANCIAL BLUNDERINGS!

To date we have had Roach-a-SMELL, BLACK BAY, the OIL EXPORATION DONE-DEAL, and now VAT.

We continue to fail to see any logic and any VALUE ADDED!

What a track record!

Yet, some of these very individuals see logic in charging a value added tax on pro bono work for the poor people in this society, who are being further PAUPERIZED by the VULTURISMS of unthinking and thoughtless VAT implementation.

It boggles the mind!

October 14, 2012 at 2:50 PM
Anonymous said...

To above, if your party was in opposition you would bark even worst.

October 14, 2012 at 2:57 PM
Anonymous said...

Hey up there! When me and my family are suffering because of foolishness, I don't about you, but I say to hell with political party.

Unlike you, I don't want chicken legs for one day, once every five years!

October 14, 2012 at 3:25 PM
Anonymous said...

The people best able to absorb all the cr p that is going on are the politicians doing it.

You see, they know what is coming down.

But more than this, they have huge salaries, and have guaranteed themselves a nice nest egg of a pension.

Others are hell-bent stealing directly from the public purse, or are giving away the taxpayers' sweat by generous concessions to other cabinet members.

October 14, 2012 at 5:27 PM
Anonymous said...

I firmly believe that if:

a) that St. Lucia is one of the last countries to implement a VAT in the OECS,

b) that the incumbent PM has had at his disposal previous pieces of legislation from around the region, and

c) that the law is his strongest technical suit, yet, he produces a shambles that is the piece of VAT legislation,

d) that the society would suffer less greatly, if he were to trade places with the Governor General, and do such great legal things like inspecting the honour guard at the next opening of the High Court.

What the heck is the value of all those law degrees? Wall plaques?

And why the hell are the VAT officials behaving like corbeaus circling around and resting on nearby trees, ready to pounce on the carcasses of dying businesses and households?

October 15, 2012 at 4:33 AM
Anonymous said...

Politics? What politics? We knew full well that VAT was coming . . . UWP wanted to implement it but mad no attempt to educate or even get the businesses to discuss the issues. Now, they are the ones screaming at the top of their lungs. They are to be blamed for 90% of the of the problems we have now.

Man, the UWP is only a bunch of incompetent men (used loosely). Full STOP!!!!

October 15, 2012 at 5:20 AM
Anonymous said...

I thought that the introduction of vat was expected to be turbulant before it would be fully practical. That adjustments would be made to satisfy the rich as well as the poor. That everyone was welcomed to make a contribution. There were nay sayers before its implementation and these same nay sayers are now starting an alarm!!!Lets not be afraid. We will find our way. T&T are still making adjustments to VAT, just saying.

October 15, 2012 at 1:12 PM
Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
I thought that the introduction of vat was expected to be turbulant before it would be fully practical. That adjustments would be made to satisfy the rich as well as the poor. That everyone was welcomed to make a contribution. There were nay sayers before its implementation and these same nay sayers are now starting an alarm!!!Lets not be afraid. We will find our way. T&T are still making adjustments to VAT, just saying.

October 15, 2012 1:12 PM
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Balderdash! Have you ever heard so much nonsense in one place before?

Man, you up there are so-o-o-o intellectually dishonest!

Whenever did you ever hear an argument asking people to model their behaviour after a less than ‘best in class’?

You must be one of our beloved shysters! Trinidad?

You dare to ask people to look to Trinidad as an example to compare as their example of governance?

Trinidad is a classic example of serious financial jokers. CARIGONE …. Sorry CARICOM located the Caribbean Multilateral Clearing Facility in Trinidad. Result? The facility went bankrupt; the small businesses-people around the Caribbean found themselves – many of them --- in mental hospitals.

Trinidad's control of the state-run BWIA saw presided over a record of only being able to manage one or two quarters of profits. The carrier had to be restructured under a receivership-type process and renamed.

Trinidadians managed a financial institution named Trade Confirmers – a banking outfit in Barbados. Borrowing short and lending long, that too went bankrupt. The depositors lost their bank deposits; some on hearing the news saw their hair on their heads turning white overnight!

A Trinidad company bought Almonds Beach in Barbados. That business folded.

We all know that CLICO, the insurance company headquartered in Trinidad cost many clients their investments in that company. The policies taken with that company are now reduced to worthless pieces of paper!

Another Trinidadian financial purchase, Sam Lord’s Castle Resort located in Barbados, is now in financial ruin. The business is how shuttered!

Barbados once proud National Bank, now renamed Republic Bank, once a thriving business, has been experiencing losses in the past two years!

You still think that Saint Lucians should compare financial performance with this litany of financial failures in Trinidad?

Trinidadians are like our current PM, King Midas in reverse. Every major financial decision winds up with financial hardship.

Look at the financial blunders: Rochamel, Black Bay, the oil exploration deal, and now the VAT.
The PM would perhaps do very well in a ceremonious role like GG.

October 16, 2012 at 2:46 PM

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