TCI News
TCI Gov’t called on to activate lenience on outstanding accommodation taxes
#Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands – May 13, 2020 – The Hotel and Tourism sector of the Turks and Caicos Islands will inevitably lose 44 per cent of its workforce in the coming weeks as the coronavirus continues to hold the global travel and tourism industry hostage.
Recommendations emanating from an April survey, commissioned by the Turks and Caicos Hotel and Tourism Association, TCHTA and conducted by KPMG are direct.
Government should support a Staff Retention Program.
Government should work with lending institutions to secure low interest; low risk loans to cover debt.
And Government should defer tax payments and waive penalty fees and interest charges for tourism businesses.
From the survey report: “Most of the resorts in question are amongst the largest in terms of revenue generation and therefore tax generators. They indicated they had an exemplary prior payment record but with the onset of the pandemic they were experiencing cancellations at unprecedented levels and also had greater difficulty collecting receivables from similarly impacted tour operators. Such receivables included significant accommodation tax components.”
An impressive, 73 per cent of TCHTA members have paid their taxes up to February, but it is unlikely the Government will see any more revenue from the sector anytime soon. There are no tourists in the country and it appears the ban on in-pound passengers via flights or cruises or pleasure craft will persist for at least three more months.
The remaining 27 per cent, who did not pay taxes in February expressed this in the survey: “All of the respondents who had not paid their accommodation tax for February would support the deferral of payment of this amount along with the waiver of interest and penalties and would commit to pay all outstanding amounts.”
Loss of this revenue to the Turks and Caicos Islands Government is already hurting, and the report survey heralds that more fiscal pain is on the way. The majority of survey-taking TCHTA members who have not yet paid taxes for February 2020, admitted that catching-up may not be possible within this year at all, without government leniency.
“If interest and penalties on outstanding amounts are not waived only 33% of the respondents who had not paid their accommodation tax for February could commit to pay all outstanding amounts in financial year 20/21.” Add to the loss in tourism revenue, the loss of economic activity predicated on tourism employees’ salaries. Already, 14 per cent of hotel and tourism workers have been terminated and at this time, those employees reflected in the survey are receiving around 55 per cent of basic pay.
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, March 17, 2023 – Revenue from the Turks and Caicos’ Financial Services Sector will more than double in the next few years, if E Jay Saunders, Deputy Premier and Finance Minister gets his way. It ‘s one of the reasons the country is investing so much capital into getting off of the EU blacklist and becoming a secure trustworthy financial destination.
“The FSC’s revenues for 2020/21 was $10.5M— the figures for 2021/22, would be about similar,” he said. He further explained that $10.5 million from the FSC represented about 2.6 percent of the country’s 408.5-million-dollar
revenue. Though it increased to $14 million in the 2021/22 financial year, finance is still a small fry compared to tourism or even stamp duties but that will change, says Saunders.
“My revenue goal for the Government by the year 2029 [or] the election after the next election – is $500M. By that time, I want the financial sector (FSC) revenues to represent at least 5% ($25M). So that’s my goal for the financial sector by 2029.”
This goal, should it be met, would increase the Government’s revenue by 100 million dollars, a significant increase in spending power for local upgrades and improvements for Turks and Caicos residents and visitors.
Saunders says it’s time for the TCI to diversify its sources of revenue to make sure that what happened in the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw residents out of a job for months, will not happen again. Tourism now makes up around 80 percent of the country’s GDP. The Minister of Finance wants to push that down to 60 or even 50 percent.
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, March 17, 2023 – Musicians from the New World Symphony will be in the Turks and Caicos in concert next month and residents are invited to attend in support of the future of Ashley’s Learning Center. 
A fairly young orchestral academy based in Miami, the New World Symphony was launched in the 1980s by 1987, Michael Tilson Thomas and Ted Arison,Carnival Cruises founder. From the 1500 applicants who vie for a spot each year, the symphony accepts around 35 music graduates annually for training fellowships.
A select few of those graduates will be in country on April 8th headlining at the Ashley’s Learning Center concert ‘We’re all in this together’. The concert which also feature local artistes will be held at Brayton Hall on Venetian Road from 6 pm to 8:30 pm
Tickets are available ON ISLEHELP $75 PER GENERAL SEAT $125 PER PREMIUM SEAT $195 PER GALLERY SEAT – with /FREFRESHMENTS.
For TICKET RESERVATIONs you can call: 649-341-2304 or email EVENTS@ASHLEYSLEARNINGCENTER.ORG
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, March 17, 2023 – As the country moves toward new fiber optic connectivity, bridging the digital divide could be a game changer for healthcare and other family-friendly services in the TCI.
The power of universal digital connectivity across countries was one of the recurring themes when the United Nations in partnership with the Network of Afro Caribbean Women and the Diaspora recently explored how technology, innovation and education are being used to address women’s health issues.
The session aimed to highlight success stories and explore how those processes can be replicated to help women and girls globally including in The Turks and Caicos.
The UN explained that despite holding a 70 percent majority in healthcare jobs, women are poorly represented in leadership roles and subject to systemic gender inequalities that can make receiving healthcare challenging.
As delegates from Chile and Rwanda, who were also partners in the session, shared the upgrades to their countries’ systems that had significantly improved the level of care available to their women, digital connectivity was a deciding factor.
In Rwanda the health ministries have begun to use drones to deliver medicine, SMS messages to alert about health threats and a completely digitized health care that eliminates paper documents for pregnant women and makes records accessible to any doctor, immediately.
Rwandan delegate, Rose Rwabuhihi shared tips that countries should keep in mind when trying to implement new processes to benefit women and the wider community.
- Partnership and sustainability are key factors to successful programs. She urged governments not to give up on projects or allow their partners to give up on them halfway.
- Education campaigns to introduce residents to the technology: “We need to build skills and deepen the knowledge so they can use the innovations that have been put in place especially in rural areas.
Poor connectivity and technological issues have plagued the TCI for years especially in the islands outside of Providenciales. Government has substantially acknowledged this disparity in communications services and is investing in a new undersea cable to augment services in the Turks and Caicos.
The UNs perspectives can now ignite a fire for even more family friendly, digital services.
In fact,Senator Yasna Provoste Campillay, the Chilean Delegate explained how connectivity and videoconferencing had been used to reach the county’s women in the most rural of areas. Chile is a long country, its landmass spread lengthwise creating unique communication challenges. While healthcare in Chile is separated by length the Turks and Caicos islands are disconnected by the ocean and solutions that prove useful for the South American country could well be worth implementing locally.
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