Dear Source,
The tax-free status is giving Innovative unfair advantage in the running of their Internet Service Provider business. We have competition in that area on the island but only one company is getting the tax-free status. Why?
Innovative may say that the phone company is a separate company from the Internet but … you can pay your bill in the same place made out to the same company. So it is obvious they are not different companies and we are giving tax-free status to an Internet Service Provider in the territory.
Also, the Public Services Commission said no other phone companies can exist in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Why? If a company wants to compete, why won't the PSC let them? I've heard nothing from the PSC that explains this in any detail. The only thing I've seen was that one of the members was angry about another company requesting to run another telephone business. If the PSC are indeed, "public service," then why aren't they communicating with the public? Where are the facts and figures?
Do the people of the Virgin Islands want to allow monopolies in the territory? If so, do they really benefit the residents? Seems to me this is a question that needs to be answered, and people in the U.S.V.I. have a right to know why we need a telephone monopoly and tax-free Internet Service Provider when there are others in the territory who pay taxes.
Taxes help build infrastructure; when a large company gets tax-free status, it means the rest of us are paying the Internal Revenue Bureau for the services that company gets — like police, government, schools etc. I don't see how the residents of the Virgin Islands can be expected to continue subsidizing the wealthy when the latest census showed the U.S.V.I. as having most of our residents living below the poverty line.
What would the numbers be if we were to calculate the amount of money that
Innovative has not paid in taxes? Would it have been enough to improve the schools and give the children schoolbooks?
And — on an optimistic note — eventually none of us will have to have an Innovative telephone. We do have the option to use cellular phones. It's a good thing the cell-phone businesses on the islands are not a monopoly controlled by Innovative. If it were, we would be a lot worse off than we are today.
Cindy Larason
St. Thomas
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