Importers who benefit from government-provided incentives have a “moral obligation” to pass down those reliefs to consumers, says President Dr Irfaan Ali. His reminder comes three months after he ordered a reduction in freight charges to pre-pandemic levels.
The ultimate result of this adjustment to customs duties, excise taxes and input value added tax (VAT) on goods imported, would be the return of $4.8 billion to the pockets of importers over six months.
The intention behind the reduction of the fees was mainly to stabilize the cost of goods and services and to prevent astronomical increases.
However, complaints continue to surface about incentives not being passed down from suppliers to consumers.
Ali said that service suppliers have a “moral responsibility” to pass down these incentives.
“In all of this, there’s something called ‘moral responsibility’. The measures that we’re implementing to help the importers, to help the farmers, to help the consumers, we expect them to act in a way that befits their moral responsibility to the consumer. And that moral responsibility is to pass on the benefits that you receive as a result of this intervention to the consumer to minimise the impact…We expect all other sectors to play apart.”
Reports have also surfaced of some private educational institutions hogging incentives. Last year, the government made all private education institutions exempt from corporate tax, however, at least three West Demerara institutions have increase tuition by 30% for online learning and 60% for “face-to-face” learning expected to commence from next January.
