Over One Million Dollars in Tax Reduction on Fuel for April

So why not simply decrease taxes on essential goods? For all intents and purposes, a tax decrease will lower prices on the market, but in the long term it will cut into government’s revenue. This will then negatively impact the services provided by the government. That is how Minister Coye puts it. He says that government lost over a million and a half dollars in tax revenues in April alone from tax breaks on fuel.

Christopher Coye

Christopher Coye, Minister of State, Ministry of Finance

“When it comes to fuel and noting, as I mentioned before how significant fuel has on not just its own consumption, but on the overall functioning of an economy, the government did in fact, has in fact, reduced taxes on fuel in a substantial way. The excise taxes have been reduced by over fifty percent on diesel in particular and substantially on regular gasoline as well. Just last month, from the reduction in excise duties on those fuel items, the government lost over a million and a half in tax revenues. So, there is quite a substantial reduction in taxes, as it relates to fuel in place. Besides that, targeted subsidies have been introduced for transportation and tour operators, to the tune of roughly two million dollars over six months. So, there is quite a bit of fiscal efforts having been made on the tax side as it relates to fuel. But, things don’t operate in a vacuum either. It is easy to say let’s reduce taxes, but then we have services to provide. The government has hundreds of different services it provides. A major part of public services that the government provides is education and health. We see how vital health has played a role in addressing the COVID pandemic. So the government absolutely needs to collect taxes. If it keep whittling away then how will it be able to provide services?”