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The Trinidad and To­ba­go Coali­tion of Bars and Restau­rants (TTCO­BAR) and the Bar­keep­ers Own­ers and Op­er­a­tors As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (BOATT) are warn­ing that the Gov­ern­ment’s pro­pos­al to in­crease the Amuse­ment Gam­ing Tax from $6,000 to $25,000 per ma­chine per year will crip­ple small and medi­um-sized bar en­ter­pris­es and lead to wide­spread clo­sures and job loss­es.

In a joint re­sponse is­sued yes­ter­day, the or­gan­i­sa­tions said the in­crease rep­re­sents a more than 400 per cent jump in tax­a­tion and will make le­gal op­er­a­tion fi­nan­cial­ly im­pos­si­ble for hun­dreds of com­mu­ni­ty-based bars that re­ly on gam­ing rev­enue to stay open and main­tain staff.

“This pol­i­cy amounts to a di­rect shut­down of small and medi­um sized bar en­ter­pris­es that de­pend on reg­u­lat­ed gam­ing rev­enue to sur­vive,” the joint state­ment said.