Colm Imbert announced on Friday night via Twitter that the Government would “remove all taxes on laptops, computers, notebook computers and tablet computers.”

The Finance Minister noted that this was “in keeping with the commitment given in out PNM 2020 General Election Manifesto.”

In doing so, Imbert reversed a tax regime imposed in January 2016, soon after he took office.
These taxes had been removed previously by the UNC government in 2000 under Basdeo Panday.

In a follow up tweet, Imbert noted that “Taxes are earmarked to be removed on the other devices mentioned on page 35 of our Manifesto, such as mobile and digital equipment, cellphones, software and accessories in the Finance Act of 2020, after the completion of the Budget Depate, in or around December 2020.”

The Minister of Education appealed last week to the private sector for help in supplying an estimated 65,000 students with devices capable of connecting to the Internet to bring them back to the remote learning classroom.
There has been no mention of the taxes that the Finance Ministry instituted on printed books in January 2016.