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The Trinidad and To­ba­go Man­u­fac­tur­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTMA) has raised con­cern over de­layed Val­ue Added Tax re­funds and the ef­fect on busi­ness­es in sev­er­al sec­tors.

In a state­ment, the As­so­ci­a­tion said feed­back from mem­bers in­volved in the man­u­fac­tur­ing and ex­port of food and bev­er­ages, house­hold prod­ucts, and print­ing and pack­ag­ing shows that de­lays in re­ceiv­ing VAT re­funds are af­fect­ing op­er­a­tions and fi­nances.

The TTMA said VAT is col­lect­ed by busi­ness­es for the state and off­set against in­put VAT, with ex­cess amounts ex­pect­ed to be re­fund­ed. How­ev­er, the As­so­ci­a­tion said re­funds are be­ing de­layed for more than a year in some cas­es, with some claims out­stand­ing for sev­er­al years.