Courier company Aeropost maintains that the newly-implemented seven per cent online purchase tax (OPT) is unfair as it adds another layer of costs to the online shopping community.
At a press conference hosted at the company's head office at Fernandez Industrial Centre, Laventille, yesterday, managing director Gillian Rodriguez-Clark said the company, while maintaining its legal obligation to comply with the tax, is not in favour of it.
"Our position on this tax is clear. We are not in support of it as we do not believe it has been fairly applied across all modes of shipping of online purchases. Like many other companies in our industry we have concerns about the mechanics of the tax which is unfairly targeted at just those of us bringing e-commerce by air. The tax also makes items more expensive for general consumers," she said.
Rodriguez-Clark said because of the company's more than three decades in the shipping and logistics business and its record of working closely with the US Government Customs and Border Protection Agency in Florida, Aeropost has been able to secure a tax exemption allowing its customers to save the US dollar taxes they would have incurred on their online shopping purchases.
"All US retailers are included, especially Trini favourites such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Forever 21, Gap and Old Navy, to name a few. What this means to our customers is that they save what they would have to pay on US taxes thereby fully discounting the impact of the seven per cent OPT," she said.
Rodriguez-Clark said the exemption is exclusive to aeropost.com based on their commercial agreement with the state of Florida.
About the OPT?
In his budget presentation on September 30, Finance Minister Colm Imbert introduced the OPT to be levied on goods bought online and shipped into the country via air freight.
The OPT, set at seven per cent, went into effect on October 20 and is based on the cost insurance and freight (CIF) value of the imported goods.
Since its implementation courier companies have been lobbying to have the tax repealed claiming it unfairly targets companies bringing in goods by air.
Imbert recently revealed that Government collected approximately $1 million in the first ten days of the OPT.?
Andre Worrell