The Greater Tunapuna Chamber of Industry and Commerce will like to see government place focus on areas such as crime, innovation, finance, Value Added Tax returns and agriculture in the upcoming national budget.
It believes the business community can bring forward creative ideas and investment to take back control of our communities adding there is need for a holistic approach at the community level.
In terms of innovation the Chamber says focussing on the human element can boost exporting services primarily in consultancy and investment.
The Chamber says it will like to see greater access to foreign currency that can aid Small, Medium Enterprises with imports adding value-added concept and priority should be given to manufacturers.
It is also proposing the replacing of VAT with a standard sales tax claiming this will make more sense to ease the burden on the citizenry, put revenue in the Government’s hands as well as easing the burden of SMEs to pay huge VAT bills and wait years to get a refund.
In the area of agriculture the Chamber will like to see incentives for the Private Sector to adopt community projects to grow and farm to provide opportunities for our youth through training and incentives to encourage investment that will ultimately contribute to reducing our food import bill.ish