Dear Editor,
Our salaries and wages are being taxed; we are charged VAT, which we are told represents taxes on a number of consumer items; we are taxed on the amount of water that we use (we call it a water bill); we pay house tax or property taxes; and taxes for travelling to other countries (on plane tickets and the airport tax).
Many consumers are not aware of the many little and big taxes which they pay in order to live.
Of recent, I went into a popular supermarket on the East Bank and bought the same set of items as I had two days earlier. The first day’s purchases came up to $947.00. The second day’s purchase of the same items came up to $947.00+$75.00 tax. I have both bills to prove it but did not make any inquiry.
Yesterday I purchased two small items totalling less than $350.00 and had to pay $47.00 tax. I asked the cashier what the tax was about and was told that it was in the system. She was unable to explain further. I did not press her as she was just the employee. I presume that the machine is programmed in such a way to register taxes in some kind of random way targeting unsuspecting customers. This is not VAT because items such as bread do not attract VAT.
I urge fellow customers and consumers to check their bills and to raise queries with the supervisors about the reason for the tax shown on some bills.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
