Foulkes encourages gaming houses not to make rash closures

Foulkes encourages gaming houses not to make rash closures
Senator Dion Foulkes, Minister of Labour.

Minister of Labor Dion Foulkes said Thursday that gaming house operators should exercise patience in transitioning to the new tax hike, while he also insisted that for businesses in general, jumping to 12 per cent value-added tax (VAT) will not be as hard as it seems.

“I know one gaming house has indicated a couple days ago that they intend to close 11 of their stores,” Foulkes said.

“But, I think that is a mixture of what happened before the introduction of the tax because I understand that they were not well-performing stores in the Family Islands, the majority of them.”

In fact, Foulkes used the opportunity Thursday to send a word of encouragement to all gaming houses.

“I would like to encourage the gaming houses; the web shops, to just be patient and let’s see what’s the full implication of the new tax,” he said.

Foulkes also addressed concerns from locals who worried that businesses would not have enough time to adjust to the increase.

“The systems are in place, it’s just a matter of making the computer adjustment. When VAT was first introduced, that was the most difficult time,” he said.

“It was new. People didn’t know the system, people didn’t know how to work it. But it’s just a matter of making the computer adjustments, which most companies have the capacity to do very quickly.”

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This article was written by TAJARO HUDSON, Eyewitness News intern.