ISLANDERS will save money if GST is added at the end of shopping bills instead of being rounded up on every single purchase, according to Deputy Alan Breckon.

He has lodged an amendment to the law introducing a goods and services tax at 3 per cent, due for debate in a fortnight, which he says will cut down shopping bills and administration costs for businesses. Deputy Breckon says that if the calculation to add GST is made not on each individual item, as the proposed law stipulates, but at the end of the total shopping receipt – like a service charge at a restaurant – there would be less opportunity for prices to be ’rounded up’. But he says that it would have to be prominently advertised and displayed that prices on the items will go up at the till. ‘This will save money for consumers at the till, and save money for businesses,’ said Deputy Breckon. ‘The cost of administration will be reduced in the long term because instead of separate calculations for every item every time the prices change, there will be a single increase applied.