 Mr. Speaker, I beg to move the following motion standing in my name, whereas it is provided on the section 33.2 of the value added tax ca 15.4 to the act, that the Ministry of Finance may by order alter the rate of interest in relation to tax payable under the act, and whereas it is further provided on the section 43.2 of the act, that an order made pursuant to section 33.2 of the act is subject to an affirmative resolution of the House, and whereas the Ministry of Finance seeks approval of the draft value added tax alteration of rate of interest order by an affirmative resolution of the House to alter from the first day of May 2023 to the first day of May 2024 the rate of interest to 0% on the tax paid up to the financial year 2021 may resolve that the House by affirmative resolution approves the value added tax alteration of rate of interest order which alters from the first day of May 2023 to the first day of May 2024 the rate of interest to 0% on the tax paid up to the financial year of 2021 Mr. Speaker, before I make my contribution to this resolution, I'd like to join the lantern as I am. Before I make my contribution to this resolution, I'd like to join the Deputy Prime Minister and the member for Sufre and yourself Mr. Speaker to welcome our visitors this morning or this afternoon to this Orberhouse Mr. Speaker. As I said to them privately Mr. Speaker that the whole purpose of the youth economy was to create that environment for people with their skills with the people with their talents to going to businesses so they can monetize the obvious talent that they have with Mr. Speaker and I want to invite them to visit the youth economy so that they can have a discussion with the officers to see how we can create their talent, we can convert their talent into a business with Mr. Speaker so when I leave politics I probably can get employed by one of them Mr. Speaker as something because I used to have these management skills a long time ago I want to come back to meet them with Mr. Speaker and invite them to try to bring their talents what they call the higher height Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this resolution is a fulfillment of a promise which I made in the budget address of the country of April 2023 Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker in that address I said that we knew or we understood that businesses suffered from the COVID pandemic and we understood that there was need to create a stimulus for them particularly in the issues as they relate to the cash flow Mr. Speaker Mr. Speaker I want to make it abundantly clear that VAT is a transaction tax and it is collected on behalf of the government the consumer pays the VAT the business collects it and after 21 days the VAT is supposed to be given back to the government it is not paid by the business it is not paid by the owner but it is paid by the consumer Mr. Speaker and that is a very important point to make Mr. Speaker it's a refund the VAT is paid and the consumer pays the VAT and when the calculations are made the government gets the difference Mr. Speaker so Mr. Speaker with holding VAT payments to the government is not a good practice it is not a good practice but Mr. Speaker the government understood or understands that particularly after COVID businesses had cash flow problems cash flow problems Mr. Speaker that were not of their own making Mr. Speaker although if you listen to the opposition they will make you believe that COVID was caused by this government but that's for another show Mr. Speaker but Mrs. Speaker not only are we saying that during COVID there was an excuse but before COVID there was no excuse why VAT was not refunded to the government after the calculations I want to add very quickly Mr. Speaker that there are sometimes when the government owes the business VAT a VAT refunds Mr. Speaker and we will ensure that if businesses pay in a timely basis government will refund in a timely basis so Mr. Speaker there was a total of 299 million dollars worth of interest due on VAT payments on LID VAT payments 299 million dollars and the government decided 299 million dollars Mr. Speaker due on interest payments to the government Mr. Speaker out of that 65 million was for VAT 65 million so the government decided that to stimulate growth to help in the cash flow of these businesses because Mr. Speaker the 65 million dollars in interest that was due on VAT ought to be paid it should be paid and the government to take measures to cause it to be paid as has happened in other countries but the government believe that in the interest of development in the interest of giving some support to these businesses in the interest of saying we are in this thing together in the interest of saying listen to me let us we will tell you we will say to you do not pay that money but you can reinvest it you can pay some of your bills you can develop your business the government has waived for VAT payments due 65 million dollars Mr. Speaker and we hope that businesses work with us businesses work with the government and pay the arrears of VAT we are going to waive the interest today come next week to waive the penalties so all we are asking is you pay what you owe the government minus in that case minus interest Mr. Speaker that in itself is a stimulus that in itself is an indirect indirect injection of funds into the economy because that money can be used for reinvestment and to increase employment and for business expansion Mr. Speaker so that is another of the promises that we have made that we have kept Mr. Speaker and that comes together with the fact that we have increased the threshold for income tax to 25,000 dollars anybody in St. Lucia who gets less than 25,000 dollars a year pays no income tax and increase from 18,000 dollars were added to us before so we have given support in that case an amnesty to the people who owe VAT and in the case of the regular income owner we have said that your first 25,000 dollars you pay no income tax to the speaker and that not only benefits the people who get less than 25,000 dollars it benefits everyone because the calculation of your tax you begin you exclude the first 25,000 dollars so if you get 30,000 dollars per year you only pay tax on 5,000 dollars as before if you have got 30,000 dollars a year you pay tax on 12,000 dollars so if you get 50,000 dollars a year you only pay tax on 25,000 dollars so not 25,000 dollars tax exemption does not only help the person who gets 25,000 dollars less it helps everyone so that is another example of how this government intends to grow the economy these are the creative strategies that we use to grow the economy and to give businesses a new lease of life or different lease of life these are the facts to the speaker and I want the public of Tenuzha to listen to the facts and understand the issues with the speaker so we can rid ourselves of the propaganda and the lies that are pedalled in this country every day with the speaker these are the facts a government waving 65,000,000 dollars of interest in the first instance and we will come next week to wave the penalty to the speaker for people who did not pay the tax and we will wave it so we can start and I am saying to the business owners that please work together with the government so that we can enjoy prosperity for all and the businesses can have a new lease of life because that is the body of the speaker I will deal with a letter that I got from the leader of the opposition I will deal with it later when he spoke about the balance sheet of business I don't know if the leader of the opposition understands that when you wave 25,000,000 dollars of payables you know Mr. Speaker they just make statements without any sense we are waving 25,000,000 dollars of payables on the balance sheets of these businesses because that view has to be shown in the balance sheet as an accounts payable either a short term accounts payable or long term accounts payable or long term liability Mr. Speaker we are waving so we are strengthening these balance sheets with the speaker so that the businesses can have a new lease of life and really go into to borrow money and their balance sheets could look better with the speaker so that's another means in which we are improving the balance sheets of these businesses with the speaker so Mr. Speaker I would encourage members to support this resolution Mr. Speaker because it really is direct assistance to businesses direct assistance to business with the speaker and let us let us stop the lies and the fabrications that exist in just to create this unity to create an atmosphere of fear an atmosphere of insecurity in this country Mr. Speaker only because people of solution decided that they wanted the solution Labour Party as a government of solution Mr. Speaker that's the only reason why Mr. Speaker only because of Mr. Speaker all sorts of lies and malignment and propaganda all kinds of falsities on Facebook and social media only because Mr. Speaker they cannot accept they cannot accept the reality that this government won 15 out of the 17 seats 13 plus 2 is 15 Mr. Speaker and I hope and I hope my math is right because all Mr. Speaker that is the reality 13 plus 2 and I heard somewhere that that's a small majority I mean Mr. Speaker I played that tip to my colleagues I will tell you what is it thank you Mr. Speaker