Families Save Big During GST-Free Back-to-School Rush

It’s that time of the year. New backpacks are getting filled with fresh notebooks, binders, markers, pencils, and the list goes on. A list that can end up being quite a hefty price, except, for three days, today, Friday, and Saturday, those shopping bags can feel a little lighter, at least at the checkout counter. That’s because it’s a GST-Free weekend, Back-to-School edition. This means you can stock up on school supplies without paying that extra 12.5% GST. News Five’s Benita Keme-Palacio visited a few stores and has the following report.

 

Benita Keme-Palacio, Reporting

Back-to-school shopping kicked off with a bonus today: no GST on school supplies. This weekend, and again from August fifteenth to seventeenth, families can shop without paying the extra 12.5% General Sales Tax. It’s part of a two-weekend initiative to ease the cost of preparing for the new school year. We visited a few stores to see how shoppers are taking advantage, and how businesses are keeping up with the demand.

 

Delia Saldano, Co-Manager, The Angelus Press Ltd.

“Well, we opened from 7:30 this morning, and from we opened, it has been nonstop foot traffic. The line has just been on and on. I think a lot of people were actually waiting for today. And I think on Saturday it might be even more grand because a lot of people won’t be at work. For us, what are flying off the shelves are our Samsung X schoolbags. One main reason: they come with a free ream of paper. You know the free ream of paper is included on the children’s booklist, so that is one of our initiatives giving back to the community. So, with that, the bag also comes with a one-year warranty as well, so that’s another added on it. Besides that, we have the crayon, and the pencils. Those are moving very fast. We’re trying to stick to the same list that GST provided to us and that’s exactly what people are coming for.”

 

So, how do you know what qualifies for GST relief? And how are stores handling questions from customers who may be unsure? We asked the Managing Director of Stationery House Retail Outlet in Belize City to walk us through it.

 

Graciani Alamilla, Managing Director, Stationary House Retail Outlet Ltd.

“So far, it’s been going good. A lot of customers are confused about what items are tax-free and what aren’t. We did get a flyer from the government of Belize, actually from the Tax Department, stating which particular school supplies won’t be tax-free for this weekend. We do have our sales clerk walking around and assisting our customers, which we do anyways. Everyone has a flyer with them. So, if the customer would ask, for example, if glues and tapes fall under the GST-free weekend deal, then we would just mention that unfortunately that is not GST-Free.”

 

Co-manager of Angelus Press Ltd., Delia Saldano, says GST-free weekends take a lot of behind-the-scenes preparation, from staff coordination to system updates. But with the right planning, it’s all worth it. Simple changes make a huge difference.

 

Delia Saldano

“We have a whole account system behind the scenes and so forth, so everything was set in the system ahead of time. And what we did on each shelf, we have them labeled so our customers can see the ones that are GST-free. So, that was a little smooth transition for us.”

 

Whether you’re running a store or filling a backpack, there’s one thing both sides agree on, this tax break is a good thing.

 

Delia Saldano

“It’s very very very good. I think it’s something that if we can do every year, it would be a good thing.”

 

Graciani Alamilla

“I would really like that a lot more items would be posted on the list, for example pens, math sets, T-squares. We do still have a lot of items that are unfortunately not tax-free this weekend and they do fall under school supplies.” – 2:41 OUT

 

Customer

“Well, I have my child’s school list; she’s going to standard one, so that’s what I’m looking for: books, folders, crayons, markers and stuff like that. Every penny counts, so anything we can save. Mainly for her, and a little for him because he’s starting preschool.”

 

Benita Keme-Palacio for News Five.