The Invoice Is Not the Landed Cost
Most paving budgets in Antigua and Barbuda go wrong in the same place. Somebody takes a supplier price, adds an ocean freight figure, and calls the result the landed cost. Customs does not work from that arithmetic. It works from a declared CIF value, applies a duty rate driven by where the goods were made rather than where they were shipped from, then layers a sales tax and a set of charges on top of the total. Build the estimate in that order and the number stops moving. Build it any other way and every revision arrives as an unpleasant surprise from the terminal, usually when the client has already been given a figure. The mechanism is not complicated, but it is strict, and it rewards buyers who learn it once.
Origin Decides the Duty Line
Antigua and Barbuda is a full CARICOM member, and duty is assessed on the Common External Tariff against the CIF value. The tariff cares about origin, not the port your container left from, and this is the single most important commercial fact for a stone buyer.
- Goods certified of CARICOM origin enter free of import duty.
- Stone quarried outside the region pays the full CET rate for its classification.
- Shipping from Florida does not make a product regionally originating.
- Classification is the broker’s call, and it should be settled before the order ships.
Plan on paying full CET on imported dimension paving and treat anything better as a bonus your broker found for you. The point of knowing this early is not to argue with the tariff; it is to stop a project team from quietly assuming a regional rate applies and then having to rewrite a package price halfway through the build.
ABST Sits on Top, Not Beside
The Antigua and Barbuda Sales Tax has stood at a standard rate of 17 percent since 1 January 2024, raised from the previous 15 percent by the Revenue (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act No. 13 of 2023. The detail buyers miss is the base it is charged on. ABST is calculated on the CIF value plus duty and other government charges, which means it applies to a figure that has already grown. A buyer modeling tax against the supplier invoice alone will understate the final number, and will usually discover the gap on the day the release is issued. Hotel and holiday accommodation moved to the same standard rate at the same time, so developers running a hospitality project should not expect a softer treatment on the fit-out side either. Treat 17 percent as the working assumption and check nothing has shifted before you sign.
The Charges Customs Names but Does Not Publish
The Customs and Excise Division publishes the list of what it collects. It does not publish a public rate card for all of it, and freight blogs that quote percentages should not be trusted as a budget input.
- Import Duty and, where relevant, Export Duty.
- A Revenue Recovery Charge applied alongside duty.
- A Throughput Levy tied to cargo moving across the port.
- Disposal and environmental levies, plus a National Solid Waste Levy.
- ABST, assessed last, on the accumulated value.
Those are the official names. Confirm the current rates with your broker rather than a blog, and put the broker’s written figure in the budget.
Why a Broker Is Effectively Compulsory
Customs is explicit: once a shipment runs over six lines, or carries a value of EC$5,000 or more, the importer needs a broker. A pallet order of imported paving units landed here passes that mark comfortably, so the question is never whether you use a broker, only which one and how early. Declarations are lodged through ASYCUDA World on a Single Administrative Document, and the Division runs automated services around the clock. A broker appointed at order stage can raise classification queries while the stone is still at sea; a broker appointed on arrival day is reading the packing list for the first time next to a demurrage clock. Ask for the brokerage fee as a line item in the same document as the duty estimate.
Building an Estimate You Can Defend
Work the stack in the same sequence Customs does, and keep the currency straight while you do it. Duty thresholds and domestic assessment are expressed in East Caribbean dollars, while resort and villa budgets are frequently written in US dollars. Mixing the two inside one spreadsheet is how a project ends up defending a figure nobody can reconcile at handover.
- Start with the supplier price for the exact format and thickness you are buying.
- Add ocean freight and insurance to reach the CIF value the declaration will carry.
- Apply the CET rate your broker confirms for the classification.
- Add the recovery charge and levies your broker quotes in writing.
- Apply ABST last, to the built-up figure, not to the invoice.
What Actually Moves the Number
Once the mechanism is clear, the levers are obvious. Thickness moves weight, weight moves freight, and freight moves CIF, which moves duty and then ABST. Ordering one thickness heavier than the traffic requires is therefore taxed four times over before it reaches your driveway. Ordering the right thickness in one consolidated shipment, rather than three top-up shipments, does the opposite, because each additional arrival carries its own clearance, its own handling and its own share of fixed charges. Sample first, confirm quantities with a proper waste allowance, and buy once. Our Antigua and Barbuda supply page sets out how orders are grouped for exactly that reason. Model the tax stack before you fall in love with a finish.