The Grenada government has confirmed that it has been collecting an increase in vehicular licence fees without the necessary approval by Parliament.
Opposition Leader Dr Keith Mitchell had raised the illegality of the payment while speaking on the resolution to approve the vehicle licensing fee by EC$50 that had originally been announced during the 2024 budget presentation in December last year.
“The fact is drivers have been paying this EC$50 for some time without the resolution getting the approval of Parliament…so you may have to do this retroactively otherwise if this is given assent with today’s date and it is implemented as per the date then you may have to return the EC$50 to everybody who already paid,” Mitchell told Parliament.
Finance Minister Dennis Cornwall, in acknowledging the discrepancy, said that a credit may have to be given to vehicle owners who have already paid the increase.
“While some of the taxpayers would have already paid that EC$50 and we did not have in place the resolution, we have agreed that we will give a credit to the taxpayers who have already paid so that nobody will actually be affected unduly.
