Duty Free Zone Sales Spike
- Details
- Category: Business
- Published on Sunday, September 04 2011 04:44
- Written by Rod Hughes
- Hits: 645
What a difference to business changing a line of a law can make! Sales at the Golfito duty free zone between May, 2010, and today are up 17% over the 2009-10 period.
It is all due to doubling the limit a resident can buy to $2,000 per year. Without import duties and other taxes, goods ranging from clothing to refrigerators are much cheaper, even if a purchaser has to pay road transport to take them to his home.
The zone was created as a way of revitalizing the economy of the southern Pacific port city after the banana trade moved away. Already popular, especially at Christmas for buying presents for the family with the annual bonus, the sales spike reflects only the increase of the limit, not necessarily more customers.
Proceeds from stall rentals paid by retail merchants are used to finance projects in the southern zone. One such project was the construction of a meat packing plant to provide employment in the previously depressed area.
Although available to all citizens, the zone was created so that the working class could have a chance to buy goods that taxes and markups had priced beyond their reach.
