Mahfood Won’t Pay Sugar Cess

Jamaican manufacturers are banking on a retreat by the Government over plans to impose a US$35 cess on refined-sugar imports, but the Ministry of Agriculture and other officials appear to be holding fast for now to plans for the fee, which they say is needed to bankroll areas of the sugar sector.

William Mahfood, who runs one of the largest beverage manufacturing and distribution companies in the Jamaica, says he has not calculated the impact of the fee on his cost of doing business because has no plan to pay it.

"It's not even a matter of how it's going to affect us - we are just not going to pay the cess," said Mahfood, CEO of Wisynco Group. He added, however, that it would likely add "tens of millions of dollars" to Wisynco's production costs, and "hundreds of millions" across the manufacturing sector.

"It would make us further uncompetitive against Trinidadian imports because in Trinidad, the manufacturers don't pay such a cess," Mahfood said. He has similarly been vocal in his opposition to the cess as president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), which sees the fee as counter to the objectives of economic growth.

Some manufacturers have raised the spectre of outsourcing their production to Trinidad if Agriculture Minister Derrick Kellier does not back down. On Tuesday, one of the most vocal of them Lasco Group chairman Lascelles Chin said he would have to determine whether a move to Trinidad would take the form of contracting out his manufacturing to a third party or investing in and commissioning a plant there.

Kellier, who took office last year, began a review of the refined-sugar policy under which he initially proposed that the Sugar Industry Authority (SAI) would be the sole importer and distributor - a process that would force manufacturers to buy from SIA's designated agent.

To read full article: Mahfood Won’t Pay Sugar Cess

Taken from The Cleaner