PE­TER CHRISTO­PHER

pe­ter.christo­pher@guardian.co.tt

If the tax ex­emp­tion cap of $350,000 pro­posed by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley is im­ple­ment­ed, the list of cars con­sid­ered lux­u­ri­ous that can be pur­chased with­out ex­emp­tions could be sig­nif­i­cant­ly re­duced for Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment and oth­er pub­lic of­fi­cers who are en­ti­tled to the ex­emp­tion.

Guardian Me­dia spoke with an au­to­mo­tive deal­er con­cern­ing the ve­hi­cles that could be pur­chased with­out cross­ing the $350,000 thresh­old and the deal­er con­firmed that most Range Rovers, Jaguar, and Porsche were es­sen­tial­ly ruled out by de­fault. The deal­er said, how­ev­er, there were many vari­ables that could raise the tax on the ve­hi­cle such as en­gine size and fea­tures.

Ac­cord­ing to a quick check of car prices of lo­cal deal­ers for var­i­ous brands, tra­di­tion­al­ly favoured lux­u­ry ve­hi­cles for MPs such as Range Rovers, Porsche and the fair­ly com­mon­ly used Toy­ota Pra­do would all draw tax­es that fall well out­side the ex­emp­tion.

For ex­am­ple, the Range Rover Sport re­cent­ly pur­chased by a Gov­ern­ment Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment would ex­ceed the $350,000 ex­emp­tion based on the Cus­tom Du­ty on the ve­hi­cle alone, which was list­ed at $367,000. With the ex­emp­tion in place, the MP would pay $228,000 in tax­es for the ve­hi­cle, as the VAT on the car tal­lied $184,000 with the Mo­tor Ve­hi­cle tax set at $134,000.

How­ev­er, the $350,000 ex­emp­tion does not ex­clude the pos­si­ble pur­chase of lux­u­ry ve­hi­cles out­right, as the Prime Min­is­ter point­ed out a “fine car” can still be bought with­in that ex­emp­tion.

He was speak­ing from per­son­al ex­pe­ri­ence, as Guardian Me­dia learnt the Mer­cedes Benz pur­chased for his use tal­lied just over $350,000 in tax­es. Val­ue Added Tax was list­ed at $82,000, Mo­tor Ve­hi­cle Tax at $80,000, and the Cus­tom Du­ty was list­ed at $190,000 tak­ing the over­all tax on the ve­hi­cle to an es­ti­mat­ed $352,000.

The Ford Mus­tang owned by Min­is­ter of Ter­rence Deyals­ingh would al­so fall with­in the ex­emp­tion as the tax­es on the ve­hi­cle tal­lied to just un­der $300,000.

The Prime Min­is­ter an­nounced his plan to ap­proach cab­i­net with the pro­pos­al, amid grow­ing pub­lic con­cern about the amount of tax ex­emp­tions en­joyed by Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans fol­low­ing the an­nounce­ment by Min­is­ter of Fi­nance Colm Im­bert that con­ces­sions for mo­tor ve­hi­cles pur­chased by the pub­lic would be re­moved in a bid to re­duce for­eign ex­change ex­pen­di­ture.

The Fi­nance Min­is­ter said over US$400 was spent on car im­ports last year.