SUGAR Minister Charan Jeath Singh has called on the Opposition to stop spinning false narratives regarding the increase in VAT, which he said did not affect basic items.
He made the statement in response to attacks by Opposition MPs in Parliament this week.
“One of the things that I have seen was cheap political point-scoring,” he said.
“They kept on saying, “there is an increase of VAT”, but they have not really dissected what the increase was about. There are 22 items which have zero VAT. As a supermarket operator, I will let you know what is happening on the supermarket floor.
“There are three categories of customers. One who only buys the basic items, which makes up $50 groceries and those are the basic items that these people are buying, because they cannot afford anything extra, and those items are VAT free.
“Then we have the second category of customers, who are with $250 groceries shopping. They have the basic items, and they have some luxury items.”
Mr Singh said the third category of customers who bought groceries up to $500, plus other luxury items.
He said VAT was not charged to people who bought basic items.
“Now, why should you, who are now collecting $100,000 in salary, cannot be charged VAT on the luxury items? We have to charge people according to what they spend.
“Do not keep talking about VAT increase. It has only increased on things that you can afford. The point is this. Do not fool the people of this country.”
