The Assembly approves VAT exemptions in Martinique and Guadeloupe to combat the high cost of living

Concrete actions to fight against high prices in the Antilles. The National Assembly adopted on Saturday evening at first reading a provision proposed by the government to exempt from VAT, in <a href="https://time.news/she-belonged-to-another-world-guadeloupe-writer-maryse-conde-has-died-2024-04-07-141831/" title="She belonged to another world. Guadeloupe writer Maryse Condé has died
– 2024-04-07 14:18:31″>Martinique and Guadeloupe, a list of “basic necessity” products, a translation of an agreement concluded on October 16 in Fort-from- France.

The list of products benefiting from this exemption, until the end of 2027, will be specified by decree. In exchange, other products that are currently exempt from VAT in these departments – such as electronic or nautical equipment – ​​should in the future be subject to this tax, Martinique MP Béatrice explained to AFP.

VideoMartinique: the mobilization collective rejects the agreement to reduce food prices by 20%

This provision, contained in a government amendment to the 2025 budget, is the legislative transcription of the agreement concluded in mid-October in Martinique between the State and the main retail operators to reduce prices by “20% on average” in this department overseas, the scene of a mobilization against the high cost of living since September.

An agreement deemed “insufficient”

Before the vote, deputies adopted two other “better” amendments than the government’s, which there is no guarantee will appear in the final copy of the text, which is just starting its parliamentary spin.

It is planned to eliminate all VAT, on all products, in the five overseas departments and not just in the Antilles. Currently only Guyana and Mayotte are exempt. The other exempts from VAT in the overseas departments some essential products, included in the price-quality-shield system (BQP), i.e. “fewer products than the government version, but in more departments”, according to Béatrice Bellay.

In Martinique, the mobilization launched at the beginning of September against the high cost of living gave rise to strong tensions which were not completely calmed by the agreement of 16 October. This was deemed insufficient by the Collective Group for the Protection of Afro-Caribbean Peoples and Resources (RPPRAC), the origin of the movement.