 The finance—customs is part of finance, in-and-revenue is part of finance, so these are the execution agencies. In an effort to provide greater clarity on government's recent policy decision to implement a health and security levy from August 2nd, 2023, Poman and Secretary in the Department of Finance Francis Fontenelle said one of the core responsibilities of a government is fiscal responsibility or fiscal sustainability. But what is fiscal sustainability in the truest sense? It is pretty much given a government's current policies, its ability to generate revenue, to at least match its expenditures. Fontenelle noted that similar to household budgets, the government must be mindful of balancing its budget using debt for any sustained period of time, as ballooning debt can land governments in the hands of foreign debt collectors. The optimum scenario, he said, is for government revenue to match its operating and capital expenditure. And that is where the government, where revenue comes in, where tax policy comes in. Because if the government is noticing that over a period of time that you have what is called a fiscal deficit or an operating account deficit or current account deficit, meaning that your revenue is not sufficient to take care of your operating expenditure, then you can see that it's danger down the line. And that is why the government has to come in with policies to correct this. Deputy Comptroller at the Customs and Exercise Department, Eva Marius-DeTerville, said that the department collects over 50 percent of government revenue and is responsible for the administration of the health and security levy on goods coming into the country. Other new taxes that are emanating from the budget cycle for this year, we are responsible for implementing these new taxes on the applicable goods at a time of importation or when the taxes become payable. For those goods which are exempted, for example, the building materials, we would not apply, we would not apply these taxes to them. In fact, it would be exempted in order to provide relief for all. So in essence, Customs is responsible for the collection and the protection of government revenue. She said the Customs and Exercise Department continues to edify the inquiring public on the reason for the taxes and on the list of exempted items via the department's website. Well, it's a new levy as you would appreciate, so it would take some getting used to. But our officers are aware of the new levy and it is being applied as we speak at the border. Comptroller at the Inland Revenue Department, IRD, Marcia Vite, highlighted the government's decision to delay the implementation of a 2.5 percent levy on services by two months. Services would start on October 2nd. So in essence, there is zero rate for the next two months, August and September, and it will start on services from October. She also sought to clear up the misconception of the levy being compared to a value added tax. It is a levy. It is definitely not a vat. It is a levy that would be collected separately from what we know as the vat. What happens though is that the vat is the final tax. So the vat would be levied on your goods and services and then on the levy. So the vat, as it always has been, is the final tax. The Inland Revenue Department will continue its outreach and education campaign with service providers and has posted the act and general information on the IRD St. Lucia website. The Ministry of Commerce will be monitoring the implementation of the removal of vat on select items such as building materials and sanitary products to ensure what the government articulated in its policy statement redounds to the ordinary citizen. For the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, Glenn Simon reporting.