The Min­istry of Fi­nance re­leased a list of ap­prox­i­mate­ly 45 VAT-free food items that was an­nounced dur­ing the 2021/2022 Bud­get pre­sen­ta­tion to come in­to ef­fect on No­vem­ber 1.

With the re­moval of the 12.5 per cent VAT on these items, con­sumers will like­ly save be­tween 30 cents on items such as a bot­tle of wa­ter to $8 on the pur­chase of cer­tain brands of but­ter, to as much as $22 off on Pure Ghee.

On con­cerns from some con­sumers that su­per­mar­kets will ar­bi­trar­i­ly hike prices with the re­moval of VAT on a range of ba­sic items, Pres­i­dent of the Su­per­mar­ket As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T Ra­jiv Diptee said the com­pet­i­tive land­scape of re­tail in T&T was fierce and "con­sumers will be able to de­tect price dis­crim­i­na­tion very eas­i­ly and (can) shop else­where."

The stores them­selves are "the cal­i­brat­ing mech­a­nism in the mar­ket for checks and bal­ances," he added, while so­cial me­dia pro­vides an­oth­er lay­er of scruti­ny where the un­scrupu­lous el­e­ments are high­light­ed.

Diptee, added, how­ev­er, "Once you aren't man­u­fac­tur­ing a good, mak­ing it, pro­cess­ing it, you have to pur­chase it at the source which is from for­eign com­pa­nies at the price they have to fetch for the good. That price we have ab­solute­ly no con­trol over. T&T are price tak­ers at the source.

"The VAT is with­in the re­mit of the Gov­ern­ment and free-mar­ket econ­o­my forces glob­al­ly where de­mand and sup­ply are con­cerned dic­tates the price of the prod­uct do­mes­tic im­porters have to pay."

Here is a sam­ple of food items and prices that are cur­rent­ly sub­ject to VAT from Food Bas­ket Su­per­mar­ket, Mt Hope, on Thurs­day. The price with VAT re­moved is al­so in­clud­ed.

Price with VAT and Price with VAT re­moved from No­vem­ber 1

Nar­iel co­conut oil 500ml $23.95 $20.95

Canola oil 500ml $27.45 $24.00

Pure Ghee Cow Brand 2kg $179.95 $157.45

Peanut but­ter Ma­touk's 500g $19.45 $17

Black pep­per Top Chef 24g $4.45 $3.89

Pars­ley Top Chef 5g $4.95 $4.33

Ce­re­al Nes­tle Corn 405g $27.95 $24.45

Kid’s ce­re­al Cap'N Crunch 370g $31.95 $27.95

Oats Quick Oats 1kg $16 $14.00

Con­densed milk Eve 390g $8.95 $7.83

In­stant cof­fee Nescafe 100g $35.45 $31.00

Ground Cof­fee Jose Perez 185g $16.95 $14.83

Steel-cut oats Roland 680g $25.95 $22.70

Green tea Lip­ton 20 bags 28g $25.97 $22.72

Or­ange juice Or­chard cal­ci­um 1l $18.45 $16.14

Ap­ple juice Or­chard 1l $10.95 $9.58

Bot­tled wa­ter Blue Wa­ters 650ml $2.45 $2.14

Hot dogs Saara 340g $12.95 $11.33

Vi­en­na sausages140g Grace $7.45 $6.51

Canned tu­na Blue Pa­cif­ic 140g $13.95 $12.20

Canned mack­er­el 425g Grace $15.45 $13.51

Canned black-eyed peas Ma­bel 442g $5.95 $5.20

Canned kid­ney beans 440g MP $6.95 $6.08

Canned corn 340g Bess $7.45 $6.51

Canned mixed veg­eta­bles Ma­touk's 425g $10.95 $9.58

May­on­naise 375g Ma­bel $12.95 $11.33

Ketchup 750ml Ma­bel's $7.95 $6.95

Roti skin (4 pack) Ex­cel­lent Choice $23 $20.12

Soup (pack­aged) 60g Gu­ru­mi $4.95 $4.33

Soya chunks 230g Re­gal $10.95 $9.58

Dhal 2lb $11.95 $10.45

Cheese slices Em­borg 200g $19.95 $17.45

But­ter 500g Emer­ald $58.45 $51.14

Turkey ham slices 150g Erin Farm $13.95 $12.20

Turkey sala­mi 200g Blue Rib­bon $15.45 $13.50

Bologna chick­en 200g Saara $10.95 $9.58

Bis­cuits Crix tri-pack 96g $15.95 $13.95

Crack­ers Munchy's vege crack­ers 390g $19.95 $17.45

(All brands of soya bean oil and olive oil were sold out.)

Peo­ple speak out

Cus­tomers at the su­per­mar­ket were asked for their opin­ion on the im­pend­ing re­moval of VAT on the food items.

Anisa Fred­er­ick, Champs Fleurs:

"Even if they re­move VAT from the items, su­per­mar­kets could still in­crease the price on the prod­ucts. That doesn't re­al­ly change any­thing. The econ­o­my is not do­ing so well be­cause of the coro­n­avirus, we're ex­pect­ing every­thing to in­crease in price. It's go­ing to be very hurt­ful on our pock­ets, but there's noth­ing we could re­al­ly do."

Kate Williams, Port-of-Spain:

"It's $10 for this Blue Band but­ter right now, some places may have it for $8 but we still have to share...Some prices may rise, we have to be hon­est. They would say they re­moved VAT and I would not see that. Do it and let the con­sumers ben­e­fit. If the price on some­thing went down and there's a spe­cial on it; car­ry it down. Give peo­ple some­thing..."

Hen­ry Alexan­der, Mt Hope:

"I haven't shopped in a while, about a month. How­ev­er, the peo­ple I talked to have in­di­cat­ed that prices gen­er­al­ly have gone up more steeply than they would have an­tic­i­pat­ed and maybe even more than what the econ­o­mists are say­ing. Maybe there is some­thing else in the mix that laypeo­ple aren't get­ting.

Per­son­al­ly, I found this su­per­mar­ket their prices are gen­er­al­ly low­er than in oth­er places and sta­ble.

I do small busi­ness con­sult­ing, you would have peo­ple who need in­puts of raw ma­te­ri­als. As a con­se­quence, they're hav­ing se­ri­ous chal­lenges be­cause you can't com­pete with the more es­tab­lished brands when they have economies of scale. For them, it's stress for small busi­ness­es and peo­ple with fixed in­comes."