Business

Yusuf Drinking Water Requests EDC Benefits To Manufacture Bottled Water On St. Croix

ST. CROIX -- Plans to locally manufacture 16.9-ounce bottled water are underway, board members from the Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority learned Tuesday during a public meeting scheduled to hear requests from several companies seeking benefits. Benefits include 90 percent reductions on corporate and personal income taxes and 100 percent exemptions on gross receipt, business property and excise tax payments. Benefits also include reduced customs duty from six percent to one percent. Self Sufficiency During Disaster Representatives of Yusuf Drinking Water (YDW) Inc. testified that after hurricanes Maria and Irma hit the territory, access to water was limited because of limited access to bottles and containers – bottles and containers that would typically come through the shipping ports that were shut down. “The local companies that provided the local water – they had the water, but they didn’t have the bottles because the shipping industry was shut down,” YDW Co-Owner Maher ...