Dear Editor,
VAT is causing a lot of controversy. Who suffers? The consumer suffers. Who really benefits from VAT? Businesses are ‘supposed’ to benefit.
A major beneficiary of VAT is the Government. But I realised the other day that even beggars benefit from VAT.
In Guyana we are not accustomed to paying for items that costs $53.00 that means $7.00 change. What has happened is that one ends up with a jingle of coins as ‘change due’.
And who likes to walk around Georgetown with a weighty pocket jingling with five, and ten, but mostly one dollars?
So when the beggars’ famous hands stretch out and the predictable “please fuh a help” is uttered one does not hesitate to empty that jingling burden of ‘small change’.
A beggar’s daily ‘income’, therefore, has increased since the introduction of VAT. And the ‘earnings’ are tax-free. Pity the poor consumer.
Yours faithfully,
Kencil Banwarie
