Trinidad and Tobago zero-rates table salt, sauces, cakes and other foods from 17 October 2025

What changed in detail

Legal Notice No. 380 of 2025, the Value Added Tax (Amendment to Schedule 2) (No. 2) Order, 2025, was made by the Minister of Finance under section 8 of the Value Added Tax Act, Chap. 75:06, on 15 October 2025. It was published in the Legal Supplement Part B, Vol. 64, No. 155, on 16 October 2025 and came into effect on 17 October 2025. It is subject to negative resolution of Parliament.

The Order inserts paragraphs (hhhh) to (wwww) into item 1(1) of Schedule 2, the list of zero-rated supplies:

• table salt; cocoa powder, sweetened or not; mauby; icing sugar; grapefruit juice; vanilla essence; soy sauce; prepared mustard; guava jams and jellies in retail packages;
• fruit, nuts and other edible parts of plants, otherwise prepared or preserved, including banana, plantain, breadfruit, sweet potato and cassava chips;
• coconut water;
• sauces, mixed condiments and seasonings, including pepper sauce, worcestershire sauce, and anchar, kuchela and similar preparations;
• other beverages containing cocoa;
• soya, tofu, gluten and vegetarian meat substitutes;
• prepared or preserved cakes and muffins;
• locally produced pumpkin, watermelon, cucumber, lettuce and tomatoes.

What it means

From 17 October 2025 these items carry VAT at 0% instead of the 12.5% standard rate. Because the supplies are zero-rated rather than exempt, sellers keep their right to recover input VAT. Shelf prices and point-of-sale tax codes had to change the day after publication, with no lead time.

The Order remains in force. A later Schedule 2 amendment, Legal Notice No. 556 of 2026, deleted the word “canned” from the beans, corn, mixed-vegetable and peas items and left these additions untouched. The 2027 Budget Statement of 12 October 2026 proposes moving some zero-rated items to exempt status from 1 January 2027 without naming them. Until that is legislated, this list stands (proposal record).