Less than a week after paid parking has become compulsory for persons parking in Georgetown, Finance Minister, Winston Jordan has reprimanded the contracting company, Smart City Solutions (SCS) for adding Value Added Tax (VAT) on the parking meter cards.
Jordan said, earlier this evening in the National Assembly, for citizens to pay VAT on the parking cards is “incorrect” and should not happen. As such, he promised that a statement will be released regarding this development.
Presently, not only are citizens required to pay VAT on the parking cards, but they are also being charged VAT for parking. As such, a $50 per 15 minutes charge is now $57 per $15 minutes.
Having been mired in controversy from the very inception, the Parking Meter initiative was rolled out on January 24, 2017 in various streets in Georgetown.
However, even though SCS had said that motorists would be given a sensitizing no pay period to acclimate themselves with the use of the meters, SCS workers were seen clamping vehicles that were parking and not paying.
SCS had indicated that vehicles clamped by its company would have to pay a fine of $8000 to have the clamp removed failing which the company would then impound the vehicle and the owner/s would then have to pay a reported $12000 fine to regain possession of their vehicle.
After facing mounted pressure over its decision to place meters in front of government schools, SCS after meeting with the Mayor and City Council (M&CC), come to a decision to have the meters removed.
Just recently, Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman at a post Cabinet presser highlighted that, as it pertains to the parking meters, Central Government would not be interfering with the affairs of Local Government, unless the situation warrants such an intervention. (Ramona Luthi)
