Business

Citing Warning From Homeland Security, Mapp Vetoes Bill Seeking To Eliminate Customs Duties

ST. THOMAS -- Governor Kenneth Mapp has vetoed a bill that sought to eliminate customs duties while transferring funds that would have been collected through another provision in the measure, proposed by Senator Kurt Vialet, that would have required the Bureau of Internal Revenue, no later than 90 days following the measure’s implementation, to “prepare and deliver a report to the Legislature that proposes appropriate changes to excise taxes on import as a means of evaluating an alternative to customs duties as a revenue source.” The revenues collected would have gone to the Government of the Virgin Islands, and in a conversation with The Consortium Thursday, Mr. Vialet said he was looking forward to the additional funds to help allay the territory's structural deficit. But in his transmittal letter to Senate President Myron Jackson, the governor said while he understood the need for the territory to receive its fair share of custom duties collected, which it has not received, "I ...