‘Dirty tricks’ claim in GST battle

Monday 22nd October 2007, 12:00AM BST.

ST HELIER Constable Simon Crowcroft has accused the Council of Ministers of embarking on a ‘dirty tricks’ campaign to stop him winning a States debate that would delay the start of GST.

Five weeks ago States Treasury officials requested copies of his parish accounts for the last five years, a move he described as ‘extraordinary’. He says that this is because they are trying to find flaws in his successful cost-cutting methods and that he is coming under pressure to withdraw the proposition. Treasury Minister Terry Le Sueur, he said, had written to him saying that the Island’s economic future might suffer if the new tax was delayed. Mr Crowcroft, whose comments come in the wake of the revelation that the level of tax receipts means that the Island is £20m better off than it thought it was, says that the council is running scared.

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