Prices of meat, meat products,margarine set to go up due to Statutory Instrument 20 of 2017

The government recently gazetted Statutory Instrument 20 of 2017 which will come into effect starting tomorrow, 1 February 2017.  SI 20 of 2017 imposes a Value Added Tax (VAT) of 15 percent the following items. The products were previously zero VAT rated. Please note that this list is only partial, we have attached the full Statutory Instrument with the whole list below.  It is interesting to note that chicken offals are included on this list

• Meat
• Meat Products
• Fish
• Potatoes
• Rice
• Margarine

Last year the government introduced Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 which was not taken very well by the public due to the restrictions on importing general goods.