Shal­iza Has­sanali

The Min­istry of Trade has re­leased a long list of more than 4,000 food items that will be ze­ro rat­ed from Thurs­day. The re­lease was is­sued by the min­istry yes­ter­day as Gov­ern­ment draws clos­er to slash­ing Val­ue Added Tax (VAT) on 7,000 food items by No­vem­ber 15, which Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar promised will ease the bur­den on con­sumers' pock­ets fol­low­ing com­plaints from cit­i­zens of ris­ing food in­fla­tion.

"We wish to ad­vise mem­bers of the me­dia that de­ter­mi­na­tion of the fi­nal list of items was a very com­plex process which in­volved care­ful, de­tailed and col­lab­o­ra­tive re­view of the food items in com­mon use by the ma­jor­i­ty of our lo­cal house­holds, util­is­ing a com­pre­hen­sive list pro­vid­ed to the min­istry by in­dus­try stake­hold­ers," the re­lease stat­ed. The mea­sure, the re­lease stat­ed, was ap­proved on Fri­day by Fi­nance Min­is­ter Lar­ry Howai.

Last Tues­day, food im­porters and dis­trib­u­tors at a stake­hold­ers meet­ing in Port-of-Spain de­fend­ed ris­ing food prices as Gov­ern­ment sought to fi­nalise the re­moval of VAT from the food items. One rec­om­men­da­tion com­ing out of the meet­ing was that the re­moval of VAT should ei­ther be done in phas­es or the pro­posed date should be pushed back.

Mem­bers of the food in­dus­try said they were faced with a her­culean task to make the nec­es­sary price ad­just­ments by No­vem­ber 15. Con­sumers could ex­pect an over­all five per cent re­lief on their gro­cery bills, but that would de­pend on the items they pur­chase.

The fol­low­ing list rep­re­sents the BROAD CAT­E­GORIES AND GROUP­INGS en­com­pass­ing in ex­cess of 4,000 su­per­mar­ket items:

• Cream and cream­ers

• Bis­cuits, sweet­ened

Meat and Ed­i­ble Meat of­fal, salt­ed, in brine, dried or smoked; ed­i­ble flours and meals of meat or meat of­fal:

• Meat of swine: Hams, shoul­ders and cuts there­of with bone in;

• Meat of swine: Bel­lies (streaky) and cuts there­of; ba­con;

• Meat of swine: Oth­er: Salt­ed or in brine

• Meat of bovine an­i­mals: Salt­ed or in brine

• Meat of bovine an­i­mals: Dried

Pre­pared and pre­served meat, meat of­fal or blood of turkey, fowls, hams and cuts of swine, shoul­ders and cuts of swine.

• Oth­er mix­tures

• Bovine an­i­mals

• Oth­er pre­pared or pre­served meat, meat of­fal or blood in­clud­ing prepa­ra­tions of blood of any an­i­mal;

• Lun­cheon meat

Sausages and sim­i­lar prod­ucts, of meat, meat of­fal or blood; food prepa­ra­tions based on these prod­ucts:

• Oth­er chick­en sausages;

• Oth­er sausages, canned;

• Oth­er sausages

• Pre­pared or pre­served salmon; crab; shrimps and prawns

• Yo­gurt

• Dairy Spreads

• But­ter fat and but­ter oil

• Im­i­ta­tion lard and lard sub­sti­tutes (short­en­ing)

• Tea, whether or not flavoured, in­clud­ing herbal teas

• Ce­re­al grains oth­er­wise worked (for ex­am­ple, hulled, rolled, flaked, pearled, sliced or kib­bled), ex­cept rice; germ of ce­re­als, whole, rolled, flaked or ground.

• Oat­meal, meal or ce­re­al which must be boiled in wa­ter or milk to make a por­ridge

• Cake mix in re­tail pack­ages not ex­ceed­ing 2kg

• Waf­fles and wafers ex­clud­ing com­mu­nion wafers, emp­ty ca­chets of a kind suit­able for phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal use, seal­ing wafers, rice pa­per and sim­i­lar

prod­ucts

• Pre­pared foods ob­tained by the swelling or roast­ing of ce­re­als or ce­re­al prod­ucts (for ex­am­ple, corn flakes); ce­re­als oth­er than maize (corn) in grain form or in the form of flakes of oth­er worked grains (ex­cept flour, groats and meal), pre-cooked or oth­er­wise pre­pared, not else­where spec­i­fied or in­clud­ed, ex­cept bul­gur wheat

• Veg­eta­bles, fruit, nuts and oth­er ed­i­ble parts of plants, pre­pared or pre­served by vine­gar or acetic acid oth­er than cu­cum­ber and gherkins; and those in pack­ages of not less than 50 kg

• Toma­toes, whole or in pieces, pre­pared or pre­served oth­er­wise than by vine­gar or acetic acid ex­cept those in pack­ages of not less than 50 kg

• Oth­er toma­toes oth­er than toma­to paste and ex­cept those in pack­ages of not less than 50 kg

• Mush­rooms, pre­pared or pre­served oth­er­wise than by vine­gar or acetic acid oth­er than mush­rooms of the genus Agar­i­cus

• Oth­er veg­eta­bles pre­pared or pre­served oth­er­wise than by vine­gar or acetic acid, frozen, oth­er than prod­ucts pre­served by sug­ar (drained, glac&ea­cute; or crys­tallised)

• Pota­toes oth­er than those in pack­ages of not less than 50 kg;

• Ho­mogenised veg­eta­bles: Prepa­ra­tions for in­fant use, put up for re­tail sale;

• Peas (Pisum Sativum) oth­er than those in pack­ages of not less than 50 kg;

• Beans (Vi­gna spp, Phase­o­lus spp): Beans, shelled oth­er than those in pack­ages of not less than 50 kg;

• Oth­er Beans (Vi­gna spp., Phase­o­lus spp.) oth­er than those in pack­ages of not less than 50 kg;

• Olives oth­er than those in pack­ages of not less than 50 kg;

• Sweet corn (Zea mays var. sac­cha­ra­ta) oth­er than those in pack­ages of not less than 50 kg;

• Bam­boo shoots oth­er than those in pack­ages of not less than 50 kg

• Maraschi­no and glac&ea­cute; cher­ries

• Jams, fruit jel­lies, mar­malade, fruit or nut pur&ea­cute;e and fruit or nut pastes, ob­tained by cook­ing, whether or not con­tain­ing added sug­ar or oth­er sweet­en­ing mat­ter:

• Ho­mogenised prepa­ra­tions: Prepa­ra­tions for in­fant use, put up for re­tail sale;

• Cit­rus fruit, fruit pur&ea­cute;e and fruit paste in re­tail pack­ages;

• Oth­er fruit pur&ea­cute;e and fruit paste, not in re­tail pack­ages, oth­er than gua­va cheese, nut­meg jams and jel­lies; pineap­ple-based; Gua­va jams and jel­lies;

• Oth­er fruit puree and fruit paste

• Fruit, nuts and oth­er ed­i­ble parts of plants, oth­er­wise pre­pared or pre­served, whether or not con­tain­ing added sug­ar or oth­er sweet­en­ing mat­ter or spir­it, not else­where spec­i­fied or in­clud­ed:

• Nuts, ground-nuts and oth­er seeds, whether or not mixed to­geth­er: Ground-nuts; pineap­ples; or­anges; grape­fruits; pears; apri­cots; cher­ries; peach­es, in­clud­ing nec­tarines; straw­ber­ries;

• Oth­er ex­clud­ing mix­tures of peanut but­ter and oth­er mix­tures; ba­nana and plan­tain chips; oth­er mix­tures

• Fruit juices (in­clud­ing grape must) and veg­etable juices, un­fer­ment­ed and not con­tain­ing added spir­it, whether or not con­tain­ing added sug­ar or oth­er sweet­en­ing mat­ter:

• Oth­er juice of any sin­gle cit­rus fruit (ex­clud­ing or­ange, grape­fruit, lime): of a Brix val­ue not ex­ceed­ing 20: Oth­er in pack­ages put up for re­tail sale;

• Pineap­ple juice: of a Brix val­ue not ex­ceed­ing 20;

• Toma­to juice

• Grape juice (in­clud­ing grape must): of a Brix val­ue not ex­ceed­ing 30: For in­fant use in pack­ages put up for re­tail sale; of a Brix val­ue not ex­ceed­ing 30; Oth­er grape juice

• Ap­ple juice: of a Brix val­ue not ex­ceed­ing 20: For in­fant use in pack­ages put up for re­tail sale; of a Brix val­ue not ex­ceed­ing 20: Oth­er, in pack­ages put up for re­tail sale; oth­er ap­ple juice

• Juice of any oth­er sin­gle fruit or veg­etable:

• Pas­sion fruit juice: Oth­er, in pack­ages put up for re­tail sale; oth­er pas­sion fruit juice;

• Prepa­ra­tion of the juice of any oth­er sin­gle fruit or veg­etable for in­fant use put up for re­tail sale;

• Oth­er juice of any sin­gle fruit or veg­etable

Mix­tures of juices:

• Prepa­ra­tions of oth­er mix­tures of juices for in­fant use, put up for re­tail sale; oth­er mix­tures of juices

Sauces and prepa­ra­tions there­fore; mixed condi­ments and mixed sea­son­ings; mus­tard flour and meal and pre­pared mus­tard:

• Oth­er toma­to sauces;

• Pep­per sauce;

• May­on­naise;

• Worces­ter­shire sauce;

• An­char, kuchela and sim­i­lar prepa­ra­tions;

• All oth­er sim­i­lar sauces and prepa­ra­tions

Soups and broths and prepa­ra­tions there­for; ho­mogenised com­pos­ite food prepa­ra­tions:

• In liq­uid form;

• In sol­id or pow­der form;

• Ho­mogenised com­pos­ite food prepa­ra­tions:

• Prepa­ra­tions for in­fant use, put up for re­tail sale

• Flavour­ing pow­ders for mak­ing bev­er­ages

• Co­conut milk in re­tail pack­ages

• Ar­ti­fi­cial sweet­en­ers

• Oth­er wa­ters, con­tain­ing added sug­ar or oth­er sweet­en­ing mat­ter or flavoured, and oth­er non-al­co­holic bev­er­ages, not in­clud­ing fruit juices (in­clud­ing grape must) and veg­etable juices, un­fer­ment­ed and not con­tain­ing added spir­it, whether or not con­tain­ing added sug­ar or oth­er sweet­en­ing mat­ter

• Oth­er wa­ters in­clud­ing min­er­al wa­ters con­tain­ing added sug­ar or oth­er sweet­en­ing mat­ter or flavoured and oth­er non-al­co­holic bev­er­ages

• Oth­er bev­er­ages con­tain­ing co­coa

• Malt bev­er­ages; and all oth­er bev­er­ages

• Veg­eta­bles (cooked by steam­ing or boil­ing in wa­ter). Mix­tures of veg­eta­bles; oth­er

• Dried veg­eta­bles, whole, cut, sliced, bro­ken or in pow­der but not fur­ther pre­pared: Onions; oth­er veg­eta­bles; mix­tures of veg­eta­bles

Dried legu­mi­nous veg­eta­bles, shelled, whether or not skinned or split:

• Peas (Pisum Sativum): Pi­geon peas;

• Peas (Pisum Sativum): Split peas;

• Peas (Pisum Sativum): Black­eye peas;

• Peas (Pisum Sativum): Oth­er peas;

• Peas (Pisum Sativum): Chick­peas (Gar­ban­zos);

• Beans (Vi­gna spp.; Phase­o­lus spp): Beans of the species Vi­gna mun­go (L.) Hep­per or Vi­gna ra­di­a­ta (L.) Wilczek;

• Beans (Vi­gna spp.; Phase­o­lus spp): Small red (adzu­ki) beans (Phase­o­lus or vi­gna an­gu­laris);

• Kid­ney beans, in­clud­ing white pea beans (Phase­o­lus vul­garis): Red kid­ney beans;

• Beans (Vi­gna spp.; Phase­o­lus spp): Kid­ney beans, in­clud­ing white pea beans (Phase­o­lus vul­garis): Oth­er;

• Beans (Vi­gna spp.; Phase­o­lus spp): Oth­er;

• Beans (Vi­gna spp.; Phase­o­lus spp): Lentils;

• Beans (Vi­gna spp.; Phase­o­lus spp): Broad beans (Vi­cia fa­ba var. ma­jor) and horse beans (Vi­cia fa­ba bar. Equina, Vi­cia fa­ba var. mi­nor); and

• Oth­er dried legu­mi­nous veg­eta­bles, shelled, whether or not skinned or split

• Dates

• Prunes

• Seeds of cumin