SOME BUSINESSES with a previously good track record of paying their National Insurance Scheme (NIS) contributions on time are now joining the ranks of defaulters as the current economic situation makes it difficult for them to pay up.
But NIS director Ian Carrington said there was also a “hardcore” group of individuals and companies who simply refused to pay their dues, whether or not times were hard.
“In a recession the situation of non-payment usually becomes worse and that’s the case now, not only for NIS but for other Government agencies as well. People who typically never had a problem paying now have problems,” he told the DAILY NATION, although not saying how many were now in that situation.
President of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), Lalu Vaswani, said he recognized that it was a difficult economic period and many persons with a traditionally excellent payment history were now finding it challenging to keep up.
“And it therefore behooves Government to facilitate those situations,” he added.
