From Catherine Pitman.
AS a Jersey girl working in accountancy in Nottingham, my heart sank when I read that Deputy Carolyn Labey was trying again to take GST off food.

Who is she trying to help? She quotes Treasury figures that the cost of taking GST off food and domestic energy is £6.5m, and that the poorest in Jersey have already had £11.5m back in increased social security and allowances. So it isn’t them.

Next she says that Jersey should cut GST because Britain has just reduced VAT. And how much of the lower VAT does she think shops have passed on to customers? Apart from ‘big ticket’ items such as electrical goods and cars, nothing. Day-to-day prices have not changed. To think that people will have an extra £6.5m in their pockets is just naive.

Has she thought about the costs to businesses of the changes she wants? They will pass these costs on to customers. And she says that there is software in Britain that businesses can use. Most software suppliers don’t sell to the Channel Islands because it is too costly for them to provide post-sale support. And she assumes that all shops have computerised till and stock systems. Many local shops don’t, and can’t afford them. Some will close if this goes ahead.

Deputy Labey talks about those on fixed incomes suffering in the recession. My (widowed) mother is on a fixed income; she is not poor, but not rich either. Her local store, run by two sisters as old as she, is five minutes walk away. They will close if they have to decide which of the thousands of lines they sell have got GST on and which have not, rather than know that it is on everything. So instead of the possibility of a few pence off her local shopping bill, my mother will have to spend more than before by driving into town.

And what about shoppers? Even after several years in Britain I can’t tell you which foods have VAT on and which don’t. So will the Jersey Consumer Council (or Breckon’s bulldog, as my mother calls it) demand labelling on the shelves at shops? And who will pay for this? That’s right — the customer will.
So please, if Deputy Labey really wants to do something to help the people of Jersey, she should drop this one. Did she know that ferry fares are twice as high to travel from Jersey to Britain as from Britain to Jersey? Now there’s something she can help us with.
7 Mona Road,
West Bridgeford,
Nottingham.