SHAS­TRI BOODAN

The Cou­va-Point Lisas Cham­ber of Com­merce is con­cerned about what mea­sures the Gov­ern­ment may dic­tate to re­cov­er the rev­enue lost from the re­moval of val­ue added tax (VAT) on non-lux­u­ry food items. Lily Heerai, cham­ber pres­i­dent, said while the cham­ber wel­comes the re­moval of VAT on food as a bud­getary mea­sure to be im­ple­ment­ed on No­vem­ber15, the cham­ber is await­ing to­day's bud­get pre­sen­ta­tion to look at what pro­pos­als would be of­fered to boost the econ­o­my and cre­ate jobs.

Heerai said she hopes the Gov­ern­ment does not give on one hand with the re­moval of VAT and take on the oth­er hand with in­creased tax­es and fines. The cham­ber plans a post-bud­get meet­ing on Wednes­day with Trade and In­dus­try Min­is­ter Vas­ant Bharat to of­fer him feed­back.

Heerai said the re­moval of VAT should put more mon­ey in the hands of the poor and mid­dle class com­mu­ni­ties, al­low­ing them to meet their fi­nan­cial oblig­a­tions and save mon­ey. The VAT break would al­so put more mon­ey in the hands of the rich who can use the ex­tra for in­vest­ment pur­pos­es, she said.