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Parking meter company charges VAT on cards
…This is wrong, says Finance Minister
Smart City Solutions (SCS), the company that has been controversially rolling out a parking
Parking meter card with the vat information on it.
meter project for the city, is being ordered to remove the Value-Added Tax that it charges for cards being sold.
According to a $500 card bought by vehicle owners, there is an additional 16 percent VAT charge of $80.
SCS would have been in double fault as not only was it ‘incorrectly’ collecting that 16 percent, but it was applying the wrong rate. VAT rate is 14 percent.
Yesterday, Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, said SCS will have to remove the Value Added Tax (VAT) being attached to the pre-paid cards the company is retailing.
During a sitting of the National Assembly, Minister Jordan said, “That is an error on the part of the SCS. It is incorrect, the VAT is only supposed to go on the parking itself. Treat it the same way as how you treat the telephone cards. The VAT isn’t on the card it is on the telephone service itself,” Jordan explained.
The Minister indicated he will issue an advisory to SCS to have the matter resolved.
The Georgetown Mayor and City Council inked the parking meter contract with SCS last year and began implementing the parking meters last week.
Drivers are required to pay $50 for every 15 minutes or $200 to park at a designated area for an hour.
However, the project rollout last week met with widespread criticisms not only over its implementation but with claims by some businesses that it has reduced customers’ traffic.
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