VAT Free Gone

 

 

Today should be light

VAT Free gone,

You should have seen the crowds

Understand, I was not one.

 

Now bajans must be broke

Not the famous and rich

But the poor struggling bajans

That fell in VAT Free ditch.

 

The merchants complain

‘Bout how things slow

But rather than drop prices,

They add on more.

 

Government gets in the act

And help them out

By putting extra money

In the merchants’ money pouch.

 

Hence, VAT Free Wednesday

And bajans went wild,

Lines all around the place

And they were not single file.

 

Spending on items

That they don’t really need

And all the time they feeding

The merchants’ greed.

 

 

From 4’oclock they assemble,

Outside a supermarket

Waiting for it to open

So they could pay their debt.

 

To Christmas, I believe,

What else can it be

When we spend what we don’t have

On things we don’t need.

 

Are bajans short of cash?

It did not really look so

For VAT Free Day came along

And the money flowed.

 

From the cash-strapped

To the merchants’ bank account

And seldom does one hear

What is the full amount.

 

One company was boasting

About their profits this year,

Over 200% from what I read

Was their profit share.

 

A trickle down to the poor

Becomes a rapid to the rich

When VAT Free days come along

And bajans fall in the ditch.

 

Next day prices return

And all the money gone

But bajans still finding money

In some kind of form.

 

 

Visa cards maxed out

Residual bank accounts gone

Yet bajans still finding money

Like fowls picking corn.

 

VAT Free Wednesday gone

But bajans still turned on

To the Christmas sending spree

In more creative forms.

 

Spending is an artform

In which bajans are experts

And especially at Christmas time

They spend money like dirt.

 

And the glorified shopkeepers

That we call business men

Sit back and rake in the dollars

With little business acumen.

 

They don’t need to have any

With Government’s support

Who though severely cash strapped

Would the VAT abort. 

Can’t give tax returns

Because of the financial crunch

But will boost merchant sales,

What an interesting bunch!

 

But VAT Free gone

And poor bajans’ money too,

I hope you had better sense

And were not in the queue.

 

I may lose a few friends here

But only till Christmas gone,

VAT Free Wednesday has now passed

And it’s too late to be warned!

 

 

Now there’s no VAT to pay in,

Not a cent yesterday!

The wheeling and dealing merchants

Had it all their own way.

 

No VAT for this Government

To write off regarding yesterday

Like when VAT is not paid in

And nobody goes to jail.

 

VAT Free Day gone

And I gone too!

Keep a little for January’s rainy days,

Please, won’t you?

 

Stewart Russell © December 22, 2022