The 2011 Budget presentation of the Turks and Caicos Islands will be delivered at a meeting of the Consultative Forum scheduled for Tuesday April 5th and it seems like taxes are on the way for TCI residents.
News of this came out of the latest Advisory Council meeting on March 30th. The Council discussed measures to address the need to reform the revenue system and reverse the decline in TCIG’s revenue, while at the same time tackling the unsustainable growth in public expenditure.
Revenue proposals include several temporary measures which will give way in the medium term to the proposed Value Added Tax, whose introduction is expected to provide a stable source of revenue for TCIG.
They include a four percent customs processing fee; an increase in a number of fees and charges to bring them in line with inflation; and sales taxes on water, financial services and insurance premiums.
The 2011/12 expenditure measures include a ten percent reduction in the cost of the public service as a first step towards achieving a 25 percent by 2012/13 and expenditure reductions in a number areas including rents, travel, scholarships and subventions to statutory bodies
The Council supported a recommendation from the Telecommunications Commission for an amendment to the regulations governing the industry to set reduced mobile termination rate (MTR) charges in line with international trends and to make provisions for the Commission to set the MTR charges in the future.
