A little consideration please

Full disclosure, I am one of those individuals whose road tax expired coming on to the end of June before the system was abolished.
Admittedly, I too was one who interpreted the comments made by the Minister as meaning that I could put down my vehicle and come July 1 would not be required to pay a full year’s tax for several days coverage.

In fact, a Facebook conversation a week ago between a gentleman and the Barbados Revenue Authority appeared to solidify this, as he outlined that his car had been off the road since June 12 when his road tax expired and would be unable to pay until June 25 and queried if he would still have to pay for those remaining five days.

In its response, BRA stated that “If you are driving the car for the remainder of this month then road tax is due. Once the car is off of the road until July 1, payment would not be necessary.”

After all, with road tax being renewed on a yearly basis to cover a vehicle’s road use for a period of 12 months, many persons believe that it is harsh to ask those who fall within the 19 days between the announcement and the change in law to pull between $400-$1600 from their pockets to pay for such.
Even if this writer was not involved, I would agree that there must be some consideration given to those persons whose road tax was due within that short time frame to either not be required to pay the tax or to have it pro-rated.

It is also hard to ask these citizens to pay this tax for a few days of coverage and to be required to pay the fuel tax which came on stream on July 1. One person has likened it to paying for a full year’s service and being told at the end of two weeks, that not only is it no longer offered and that you cannot get a refund, but you also have to pay for the new service coming on stream.

It is commendable that over the past few weeks since it has been sworn in, that the new government has made efforts to be more transparent and open with the public in how it conducts the people’s business.

However, when the announcement was made by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley on June 11, in the almost three weeks before abolition of the road tax, there should have been information available via the traditional and social media as to how this would work as many were questioning the matter.

One irate person, in calling the newsroom after Tuesday’s press conference, questioned why the new government could waive taxes owed between 2000 and 2016, but could not have introduced a grace period leading up to the abolition and waived that road tax owed. Another insisted that with government announcing that those goods landed at the Bridgetown Port before July 1 would not carry the National Social Responsibility Levy, could not the same leeway be given? After all, the persons caught up in this transitory period are those law-abiding citizens who pay their taxes yearly as opposed to the 20 000 who had up to July 1, escaped the taxman.