PM Briceño, “We have not raised tax on a single item.”

Earlier this week, Prime Minister John Briceño also spoke on inflation, the unions’ willingness to provide oversight, as well as changing trends in the purchase of consumer goods.  Government, according to the prime minister, has refrained from implementing tax hikes where this matter is concerned.

Prime Minister John Briceño

Prime Minister John Briceño

“We have not raised tax on a single item, to say that, “Oh, the government is taxing us.”  That has nothing to do with us.  As I said, over and over, this is imported.  Many of our food items are zero-rated, many of them.  So we’ve been having this discussion back and forth, we even met with the unions, we met and we’ve discussed this with the chamber before.  We’ve discussed this with importers, we’ve discussed this with retailers.  We’re trying to find how or what can be done.  The unions, the Public Service Union, has been very helpful in saying , “Listen, we’re prepared to help you police.”  The truth of the fact is that yes, goods are going up internationally, but also there are some unscrupulous businesspeople that take advantage of it.”

Isani Cayetano

“It sends a sort of a shock when you hear places like Augusto Quan, places like Bottom Dalla and perhaps that’s not even the small mom and pops that are closing down that we don’t hear about.  All of this sends sort of like a shudder that, you know what, perhaps things aren’t as good as we’re painting it to be in terms of the economic picture.  How does one respond to that?”

Prime Minister John Briceño

“But I will challenge you on that, have you gone to the other supermarkets and see the amount of people buying there.  What has happened is that the purchasing patterns have changed.”