RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

As Bud­get Day 2024 ap­proach­es, the Greater Tu­na­puna Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce has called for im­proved in­cen­tives for small and mi­cro-en­ter­pris­es, and en­hanced ac­cess to for­eign cur­ren­cy.

Pres­i­dent Ra­mon Gre­go­rio and Pub­lic Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer Maria Mo­hammed-Ma­haraj is­sued a com­pre­hen­sive state­ment, em­pha­siz­ing the cham­ber's an­tic­i­pa­tion of a bud­get that could in­vig­o­rate the econ­o­my.

"We want a Bud­get that should seek to re­duce op­er­a­tional costs for SMEs, ad­dress ac­cess to fi­nance main­ly in for­eign ex­change to sup­port growth with­in the sec­tor, and last­ly, in­cen­tives to get in­volved in new mar­kets," the state­ment de­clared.

The Cham­ber stressed the need for low­er­ing op­er­a­tional costs and en­cour­ag­ing in­vest­ment in the pri­vate sec­tor. It high­light­ed the in­ef­fi­cien­cy of the Val­ue Added Tax (VAT) Re­turn sys­tem say­ing it was a hin­drance to the growth of pri­vate sec­tor busi­ness­es.

"Ad­di­tion­al­ly, our mem­ber­ship con­tin­ues to grap­ple with crime in the form of rob­bery, lar­ce­ny, and the penul­ti­mate li­a­bil­i­ty of an out-of-con­trol mur­der rate," the Cham­ber point­ed out. "We be­lieve the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty can bring for­ward cre­ative ideas and in­vest­ment to take back con­trol of our com­mu­ni­ties. From this per­spec­tive, tax in­cen­tives should be pre­sent­ed to the pri­vate sec­tor to in­crease this type of ac­tiv­i­ty. As a pro­gres­sive cham­ber, we need a holis­tic ap­proach at the com­mu­ni­ty lev­el as we firm­ly be­lieve the Po­lice Ser­vice of the Coun­try can­not do it alone."

On the sub­ject of in­no­va­tion, the Cham­ber urged the gov­ern­ment to in­cen­tivize it in a mean­ing­ful way that could em­pow­er SMEs to up­grade and im­ple­ment ISO man­age­ment sys­tems, there­by gain­ing greater ac­cess to for­eign mar­kets.

"We need to adopt a phi­los­o­phy that no busi­ness is too small to ex­port, and in our cur­rent re­al­i­ty, the abil­i­ty to earn every for­eign dol­lar will go a long way. Fo­cus­ing on the hu­man el­e­ment of in­no­va­tion can boost ex­port­ing ser­vices pri­mar­i­ly in con­sul­tan­cy and in­vest­ment," the Cham­ber as­sert­ed, call­ing for the es­tab­lish­ment of sys­tems to en­cour­age ex­por­ta­tion.

Re­gard­ing fi­nance, the Cham­ber called for en­hanced ac­cess to for­eign cur­ren­cy, par­tic­u­lar­ly to aid SMEs with im­ports. It rec­og­nized the sig­nif­i­cance of the val­ue-added con­cept but em­pha­sized that many SMEs im­port goods, add val­ue, and ex­port, mak­ing pri­or­i­tized ac­cess to for­eign ex­change cru­cial.

"We are look­ing for­ward to an ar­tic­u­la­tion of how the state agen­cies are go­ing to man­age for­eign cur­ren­cy to bail out SMEs. At this peak trade sea­son, a much-need­ed in­jec­tion in­to the fi­nan­cial sec­tor from our re­serves is need­ed. If this sit­u­a­tion is not man­aged prop­er­ly with a sense of ur­gency, we will not on­ly see a gloomy Christ­mas but a shrunk­en SME sec­tor next year," the Cham­ber warned.

The Cham­ber fur­ther ad­vo­cat­ed for re­plac­ing VAT re­turns with a stan­dard sales tax, which would ex­pe­dite rev­enue col­lec­tion for the gov­ern­ment and ease the bur­den of SMEs that of­ten strug­gle with large VAT bills and lengthy re­fund process­es.

It al­so called for in­cen­tives for the pri­vate sec­tor to un­der­take com­mu­ni­ty projects re­lat­ed to agri­cul­ture and farm­ing, fos­ter­ing a more in­te­grat­ed ap­proach to growth and de­vel­op­ment.