By Dana Malcom

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, November 14, 2022 – In three weeks items like grits, bread, cereals, cooking oil, sugar, meats and fruits will be more expensive for Turks and Caicos consumers.  The tax exemption on bread basket items which began in August as part of the TCI Government’s $16 million Price Inflation Stimulus Package is scheduled to end in just over two weeks.

The duty exemptions were instituted to help with the island’s grocery prices and included dozens of everyday food and household items on supermarket shelves.  It also applied to individuals who shopped online or on trip and imported the goods personally.  At the time food inflation had hit over 30 per cent making food incredibly expensive for even middle income households.

Currently, food inflation in the United States stands at 10.9 per cent, a number which, as E. Jay Saunders, Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance, Investment and Trade had pointed out would be imported and compounded for residents in the Turks and Caicos islands.  The exemption holds steady for the popular Black Friday super shopping weekend but expires just before the Christmas rush when residents will be reaching for even more goods on supermarket shelves to celebrate the holiday season.

Economists have, since September, refreshed predictions that food prices will not go down anytime soon.  The TCI Government has not indicated to the public whether it will renew the tax exemption.

In any case residents will still benefit, though to a markedly lesser degree, from the 2.5 per cent food and fuel tax break decrease announced in April and the partial payment of fuel surcharges on their electricity bills rolled out in October as the Fuel Factor Stabilization Credit.

The fuel factor credit expires at the end of 2022 and the food and fuel tax break runs out in April of 2023.

The current measure which allowed grocers to buy and pass on duty free prices to shoppers and which gave residents full duty exemption on items they themselves brought into the country ends in a mere 16 days.