The Bruce Golding-led Caricom Review Commission indicated yesterday that the current dispute between the Government of Antigua and Barbuda and Jamaican-owned Sandals Resorts International (SRI) had come up on its radar, in respect of the issue of perceived unfair practices.
Prime Minister Gaston Browne recently withdrew a tax concession agreement that Sandals had signed with the previous Baldwin Spencer Government in 2009, saying it was illegal and accusing the hotel of not paying over sales tax under the agreement.
Sandals has hit back that Browne’s decision was done unilaterally, without notice and without any evidence of wrongdoing on the hotel’s part. SRI has also said it would sue the Antigua Government for defaming its vaunted international brand.
At the first meeting of his star-studded 17-member commission, Golding was asked by journalists if the review body was aware of the dispute and what approach, if any, it would take to seek a resolution.
“Yes, it has come up on our radar in a generic way, because it would have to do with the question of perceived unfair practices,” Golding, the former Jamaican prime minister, said.
Commenting on Browne’s accusations of withholding taxes, Sandals insisted that it had been operating in Antigua and Barbuda since 1992 and had consistently been audited by Price-Waterhouse-Coopers, and more recently by Grant Thornton International, as well as by the Government’s own tax department and “never has there been cause for any such accusations”.
