Efforts to reign in Barbadian wishes to buy goods and services from abroad via the internet in the end must be regulated if Barbados is to keep its foreign exchange at healthier levels…

Shane Lowe is President of the Barbados Economic Society and he was reacting to concerns expressed by the Immediate Past President of the Chamber of Commerce Eddy Abed who lamented further delays by the Mia Mottley Administration to implement the use of Value Added Tax or VAT on internet purchases.

Mr Lowe spoke with BajanReporter.com in an exclusive interview recently and said while the wish to ensure Foreign Exchange does not evaporate rapidly is understandable, it is equally reasonable to consider the perspective of the average consumer who is looking to curb expenses; –

The President of the BES in his exclusive interview with The Bajan Reporter, noted perhaps Government heeds to make Barbadians aware the measure to place VAT on online shopping is a means of reducing this country’s current level of debt; –

The initial proposal to use VAT for internet purchases was to have started October 1st, this was put forward to December 1st and then the date became the 15th of this month, in order to ensure the framework did not charge consumers twice in buying then receiving goods.

Former Chamber President Abed wants to see the ratification of this initiative by either April if not in time for the Crop Over season of 2019.