The Turks and Caicos Independent Business Council (TCIBC) are stepping up their efforts to halt attempts by the United Kingdom to impose a value added tax (VAT) regime in their overseas territory.
A release from the private sector organisation announced that it has started “Phase 2” in their “battle against VAT” as the country prepares for elections next Friday (November 9).
In the statement the TCIB — a group of influential Turks and Caicos business leaders – maintained that VAT would have a detrimental effect on the islands’ economy and local businesses and they accused Governor Ric Todd of acting in a “high handed, arrogant colonial-style” for not consulting business stakeholders on the move.
The TCIB have now instructed their London-based lobbyists and public relations consultants, Media House International to step up their lobbying efforts against the new tax at the seat of the UK government in Westminster, in the UK media, and the global offshore press.
According to the TCIB, a recent anti-VAT petition garnered over 3000 signatures, estimated at over half of the country’s electorate, who are demanding that the government delay its implementation of VAT until a full analysis is done on the impact it will have on the Islands’ economy.
The private sector body maintained that the rule of the London-imposed interim government currently in power will come to an end with the November 9 elections and therefore they argued the new tax should be a decision made by the newly elected government.
So far they have gained support from the leaders of both parties who have been unified in their public opposition to the introduction of VAT.
The TCIB stressed that they do not object to increases in taxation for the country, however they accused the interim government of hastily introducing an extremely complex tax that is expensive to implement, expensive to collect and places additional resource and cost burdens on the business community
