Monday December 22nd marked the much-awaited Vat-free day which scores of Saint Lucians seemed to have willingly utilized to their full advantage.
The Vat-free day, which was a campaign promise made by Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre in September of 2025, was designed to allow local consumers to benefit from a suspension of the 12.5% tax.
While not all sales were included on the list of excepted items, a long list did attract the 12.5% reduction including groceries, hire purchase items, clothing and footwear, building material, automotive parts, cosmetics and toiletries and general merchandise.
The list of non-eligible items included motor vehicles, guns, ammunition, tobacco products, and alcoholic beverages. Only goods purchased domestically were eligible and therefore VAT remained payable to the Customs and Excise Department for goods at the time of importation.
Local consumers, on Monday, flooded supermarkets and other local business houses to take advantage of the exemption, an opportunity also seized by Prime Minister Pierre himself. Re-elected on December 1st 2025, the Prime Minister wasted no time in making good on his promise. After being sworn in on December 5th, the first order of business was to put in place the mechanism to facilitate the VAT exemption at the first sitting of the Thirteenth Session of Parliament on December 16th.
Speaking on the VAT-free day, numerous consumers expressed gratitude for the exemption while praising the Prime Minister for the gesture, which they said felt well placed for the Christmas season. The long traffic lines and the equally long lines at the supermarkets were testament to the popularity of the initiative.
While most were frantically taking advantage of the opportunity before the day was up, some complaints echoed in some quarters.
Some businesses were accused of hiking prices ahead of December 22nd which reportedly resulted in some consumers not realizing the benefit of the initiative. These accusations were not properly substantiated and were not immediately verifiable.
All businesses listed on the official government documents were companies willingly participating in the initiative.