WHEN the States were split down the middle last week as they voted on the proposition to exempt essential foods from GST, an initiative supported by the Council of Ministers was thwarted.

In accordance with established procedure, that vote meant that the status quo obtains. It does not, however, mean that the Island has heard the last of the issue.

Health Minister Senator Ben Shenton has pledged that he will bring the question back to the House after the coming elections. This move will, moreover, be supported by Assistant Health Minister Jim Perchard and Environment Minister Freddie Cohen.

But Members – and Islanders – will not have to wait until a new States Assembly sits for a re-examination of the core arguments that led to last week’s tied vote. Next week there will be a debate on tackling the impact of soaring food and fuel prices on the less well off not through re-engineering GST but by pumping money into tax thresholds changes and benefit increases – the strategy proposed by Deputy John Le Fondré.

When ministers decided that GST exemptions were the way to counter the effects of rising prices they were accused by some of making a U-turn. Others accepted that they were merely reacting to unforeseen changed circumstances and that the course they were promoting was entirely reasonable.

It was vital that some sort of prompt action was necessary, but Deputy Le Fondré’s ideas demonstrate that there could be more than one way of achieving a satisfactory outcome. It is also significant that hiking benefits and changing tax thresholds would be in line with the original intention to keep GST structures as simple as possible to minimise the cost of collection.

In addition, next week’s debate will permit closer examination of an important objection to removing GST from foodstuffs which may well have influenced many of those who voted against the proposition – that the change could, in fact, be of most benefit to high earners who consume most.

Irrespective of whether ministers can be accused of attempting a U-turn or congratulated for responding quickly to altered conditions, a fresh look at the whole GST picture and other means of supporting those hardest hit by this new tax will be no bad thing.