ST. LUCIA: Saint Lucia benefitted from capacity development provided by the International Monetary Fund, the IMF.
Saint Lucia is a member of the Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC) – one of eight regional branches of the IMF worldwide.
Program Coordinator David Kloeden said CARTAC worked closely with the Ministry of Finance to provide technical assistance on tax policy.
“Saint Lucia has been a partner to CARTAC over the years and has made excellent use of CARTAC’s support and technical assistance. I think of the Inland Revenue Department. Value Added Tax has been around for a while in Saint Lucia but this is an important accomplishment. Taxes are a necessity for Government to meet the needs of its citizens and the Value Added Tax has a lot of positive features and factors that contribute to that. And more recently, the property tax reform is delivering good results in Saint Lucia.”
Kloeden said that in keeping with CARTAC’s mandate, Saint Lucia is receiving support and assistance in other critical financial areas.
“On the Financial Services Regulatory Authority in Saint Lucia, which has the responsibility for the non-banking sector, we’re doing important work with them on risk-based supervision and other skill sets to deal with the non-banking sector; the credit unions, the pensions, and the insurance sector,” Kloeden said. “We’ve done some very good work in the region across the Currency Union including Saint Lucia, in bringing in the new standards for the measurement and reporting of balance of payment statistics.”
CARTAC aims to help Caribbean countries strengthen human and institutional capacity, and create sound macroeconomic policies to promote growth and reduce poverty.
