SVG Passes the Excise Tax Amendment Bill
On Monday, November 21, St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) parliament passed the Excise Tax Amendment Bill in an effort to bring the islands’ taxation in line with that of CARICOM.
The amendment will harmonise the customs tariff headings for product descriptions in the first and second schedules of the Excise Tax Act with the Harmonised Commodity Description and Coding System (HS 2022) of the Common External Tariff.
Finance Minister Camilo Gonsalves, who introduced the bill, stated that the CARICOM States are in various stages of implementing this version of the system and that the new legislation will amend the Excise Tax Act beginning on January 1, 2023.
“What is being done is not unique to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; rather, it is a regional adjustment to the common external tariff and a regional adjustment to our excise and customs arrangements intended in the wisdom of the Council for Trade and Economic Development to promote and buttress the development of industry within CARICOM, as well as to create additional product categories to keep Saint Vincent up-to-date with technological changes in international trade and commerce.
Gonsalves stated that St. Vincent and the Grenadines is falling behind, as the region is already on its seventh version, while the version currently in use at the port in St. Vincent and the Grenadines is H.F. 2007.
Gonsalves stated that versions are updated every five years, and since the island missed 2012 and 2017, they are moving from HS 2007 to HS 2022 to avoid implementing things that are already obsolete.
