Headlines:
| Fees and taxes for guns and cigarettes drastically increase |
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| Monday, 14 April 2008 | |
Persons applying for or renewing gun licenses will have
to pay more as of Monday. Fees for licensing firearms will go up by 100 per cent. This means that the fees which were previously $3,000 are now $6,000. Persons obtaining firearm users certificates will now pay $2,000 instead of $600 as before. Firearm dealer fees have also been increased from $10,000 to $20,000. Finance Minister Audley Shaw announced the increase during his budget presentation last Thursday. Several other tax increases were announced including a 50 per cent hike in motor vehicle licensing fees and an increase in the General Consumption Tax on the importation of some motor vehicles. Those increases will take effect on May 1. And smokers will have to pay more Monday for cigarettes. On Monday morning Carreras announced that one stick of its Craven "A" cigarette will be sold for $20 up from $15. The increase is due to a hike in a Special Consumption Tax paid by cigarette importers. The importers will now have to pay $6,000 per 1,000 sticks of cigarettes, a move from $2,300. However, both the stamp and the excise duty will be eliminated from imported cigarettes. The 30 per cent customs duty normally charged on cigarettes imported from outside of CARICOM countries still applies. |