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Al­though Car­ni­val is tak­ing place amid a state of emer­gency (SoE), busi­ness­es and vis­i­tors say they haven’t been neg­a­tive­ly af­fect­ed.

Steve Sama­roo, man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of Sama­roo’s, a well-known Car­ni­val sup­plies store lo­cat­ed in San Juan, said the SoE hadn’t af­fect­ed sales. He said the im­por­ta­tion of cos­tumes has had the great­est im­pact on his busi­ness.

“The im­pact we’ve had is the im­por­ta­tion of ready-made cos­tumes, which is af­fect­ing our sales sig­nif­i­cant­ly and I am ask­ing the Gov­ern­ment to make all Car­ni­val sup­plies du­ty-free; and in­crease the tax­es and tar­iffs on im­port­ed cos­tumes. If this con­tin­ues, you’re not go­ing to see Sama­roo’s any­more,” he said.