RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

The Gov­ern­ment’s move to in­crease fines, cus­toms du­ties and busi­ness-re­lat­ed levies has drawn mixed re­ac­tions from the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty, with stake­hold­ers large­ly ac­knowl­edg­ing the need for rev­enue gen­er­a­tion and road dis­ci­pline, but warn­ing that poor com­mu­ni­ca­tion and weak reg­u­la­to­ry over­sight could un­der­mine pub­lic trust and eco­nom­ic sta­bil­i­ty.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Ch­agua­nas Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce pres­i­dent Bal­dath Ma­haraj said the in­creased cus­toms and port-re­lat­ed fees were rel­a­tive­ly nom­i­nal when viewed against the over­all val­ue of im­port­ed goods.