Tax breaks for investors under SEZ policy

INVESTORS could soon benefit from tax breaks as the Cabinet approved financial incentives on January 25, as the government hopes to fully operationalise the Special Economic Zone Authority by April 2024.

The revelation of the approval came on January 26 from Trade and Industry Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon during the sod-turning ceremony for the Brydens Group's Regional Distribution Centre along Factory Road, Chaguanas.

Speaking to reporters following the ceremony, she said the ministry has been working closely with the Finance Ministry to bring these incentives to replace the old Free Zones regime. "This will bring into place a more modernised architecture of incentives, which we expect to attract many investors both local and foreign," she said.

The House of Representatives unanimously passed the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Bill, 2021, in Parliament in January 2022.

"We would have passed the necessary legislation and, much later than that, we worked on the regulations which have been laid in parliament. Yesterday (Thursday), we passed the incentives framework in Cabinet and that brings us much closer to realising the Special Economic Zones authority.

"What we now have to do is to zero in on the administration side of it, and so we will begin to do the assessing of suitable people for the executive positions in the authority and from then on work on ensuring that all systems are go for the actual authority, which we expect as I said, just to have in place...in the first half of this year."

Asked what kind of incentives can investors expect to benefit from, Gopee-Scoon said: " I don't want to let the cat out of the bag fully yet. But it certainly is...very attractive. Benefits in terms of corporation tax and other types of taxes and so on. But I will leave the details of that for another day."

When pressed further she said: "Reduced taxes. Let me just say, reduced taxes for now." Gopee-Scoon appointed the Special Economic Zone Authority board in July 2022. It is chaired by Karen Tom Yew-Jardine with Sharon Mohammed as second in command. Other members include Aisha Donaldson, Irfan Hosein, Matthew Jones, Deomati Ramdass, Stephen Rodriguez, Deyson Scott, Bernard Shepherd and Elena Araujo.