Basseterre, St. Kitts, February 06, 2009 (SKNIS): The removal of consumption tax from 12 food items decreased and stabilized the prices of those goods over a six month period.
This was revealed by a “Report on Consumption Tax (Amendment) Order, 2008,” produced by the Consumer Affairs Department of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Consumer Affairs.
To compile this report, Consumer Affairs Price Control Officers carried out their customary inspections at the supermarkets and collected data pertaining to 25 items included in the Food Basket of Essential Goods as outlined in the Statutory Rules and Orders (SR & O) No 41 of 2007, which is an amendment to the Distribution of Goods and Price Control Act No 7 of 1968. These are the essential goods which are price controlled by government to ensure residents a good quality of life.
The 12 items in question are included in 25 essential goods list and were exempted from Consumption Tax, effective May 01, 2008. Data was collected from April 21 to October 21, 2008, and included six supermarkets in the Basseterre area.
Consumption Tax was removed from chicken parts (except breast), canned corned beef, margarine, tomato ketchup, canned tuna, vegetable oil, sardines, canned Vienna sausages, processed cheese, pasta products, baby food and diapers.
It was determined that Valu Mart, for instance, had the greatest reduction in price of Chicken Wings, which represented a 50 percent saving, followed by Flavourite Elbow Macaroni which had a 36 percent savings. Best Buy’s Coloso Vienna Sausage had the greatest saving at 21 percent which was followed by Cheddar Cheese at 16 percent. Cheddar Cheese had the greatest savings at Pavilion Supermarket at 25 percent followed by drumsticks at 18 percent. Rams Supermarket had the greatest savings of 39 percent on Mueller’s Spaghetti which was followed by 29 percent on Goya Spaghetti.
Across the board, in all surveyed supermarkets it was found that the price of certain items remained unchanged, such as, tomato ketchup, vegetable oil and adult pampers. There were several price increases on several of the 12 goods.
Director of Consumer Affairs Mr. Howard Richardson has informed the St. Kitts and Nevis Information Service, that investigations are presently being carried out to determine the reason for these price increases. The general public is asked to bear in mind that the consumption tax was removed from the 12 mentioned items, which are included in the almost 30 price controlled goods. Commodities not included on these two lists are reliant on the demand and supply forces of the market.
