President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce Colonel (retd) Carl Morgan has told Stabroek Business that the business organisation expects that VAT could impact significantly on sales volumes during the festive season. Colonel Morgan’s remarks echo sentiments expressed by downtown Georgetown businessmen who told Stabroek Business that this year they were more concerned about the likely impact of VAT than the possibility of criminal attacks against the business community.
Earlier this week Stabroek Business spoke with the proprietors of twenty businesses in downtown Georgetown all of whom said that price increases for consumer goods usually in high seasonal demand could significantly reduce consumer spending this Christmas. Asked whether they felt that VAT could impact on Christmas shopping to a greater extent than crime this year several of the businessmen told Stabroek Business that crime has never really affected the volume of traditional Christmas shoppers. “It is businesses that have had to worry about crime, not the shoppers,” one businessman said.
Colonel Morgan told Stabroek Business that he was not surprised that the business community had made such an assessment. “Of course there are concerns about crime but at least the police have unveiled a plan to seek to deal with crime this Christmas. There is nothing that the consumer can do about VAT,” the Chamber President told Stabroek Business.
When Stabroek Business spoke with downtown businesses during the pre-Christmas period last year most businessmen expressed concern that crime would affect downtown commercial activity. And while crime is still a serious concern two of the businessmen with whom Stabroek Business spoke said that the fact that even with crime on the increase VAT was generating greater concern within the business community was a reflection of the significant impact that the imposition of the new tax had had on business.
Asked to comment on criticisms made of the private sector’s relative silence in the face of an undercurrent of concern to the public treasury from VAT and that the private sector would be renewing its call to government to lower the income tax threshold and reduce corporate taxes.
Morgan said that he was aware of the extent of the police Christmas anti-crime initiatives adding that while businesses may feel more secure this year in the light of a heightened police presence on the streets, shoppers had to be mindful since criminals were probably likely to tackle ‘softer’ targets including bus and car parks.
Some businessmen with whom Stabroek Business spoke said that despite the increased seasonal police presence in the city they had, nonetheless, hired extra guards for the Christmas period.
This newspaper has learnt, however, that there is a shortage of trained security guards in the system and according to a security source some of the smaller security services may have simply “hired in” people with little if any training and “put them in uniforms” to fill the gaps that are usually created as a result of the seasonal demand for security guards.
