Largest petition in Jersey’s history – 19,209 (and it still fell on deaf ears!)

Many thanks to all concerned who tirelessly went and collected signatures – such a tremendous community effort. Well done to Constable Crowcroft for taking it to the States and thank you to the 23 States Members who saw sense and voted to defer GST. Unfortunately as we all now know there were 28 States Members who thought better of it and stuck their heels in and kept the implementation of GST on course – due date May 2008.

Elvis Presley was here

Over 20,300 signatures were collected (many more kept pouring in after the closing date but were too late to be included). These were handed to the States Greffe to be “officialised”. Around 1,100 were dis-allowed because the name and details were either incomplete eg John Smith, St Martin; or looked fictitious, Elvis Presley @ Gracelands! This proves the signatures were genuine and we are quite sure people knew exactly what they signing up to.

Community Support

The Petition was around for a mere eight weeks but in that time so many people became involved in collecting signatures; individuals collected from family, friends, neighbours; those at work collected from their colleagues and customers; cafés and shops; restaurants and garages and hair salons. Organisations were also active: Senior Citizens, Age Concern, Transport and General Workers Union – they all played their part.

Effect on basic living standards.

The reasons we and 19,209 others went ahead with this are quite clear, we believe the addition of a 3% Goods and Services tax will affect our basic living standards.

We have no doubt that it WILL lead to

• Higher Inflation

• Increase in Red Tape

• Extra and considerable costs to local businesses and consumers alike

Costs to businesses will run into millions of £’s

Early indications from businesses, large and small, from whom the Consumer Council Chairman, Deputy Breckon, has sought a view, say that implementation costs to businesses are significant and could even run to over £5 million across the economy. Some larger businesses have indicated that the cost to them will be over £100,000 to implement. Added to this will be the on-going daily costs to comply with the Price Marking Law which states all prices must be inclusive of GST and be shown at the shelf. This will involve, in some cases, “over-ticketing” of UK marked pricing (– it has been suggested that some products will be discontinued and disappear i.e. less choice for us in Jersey.)  Altogether these raise at least three issues

1. It will add up to more than 3% (but we will be keeping a keen eye on this area)

2. It will increase business costs and red tape

3. How and who will independently monitor “cause & effect”.

   This then raises the question who will have to pay for this? – The consumer!

Retail Price Index – cause & effect

A reasonable period is required to measure the effect on the Retail Price Index. There should be some effect in the latter part of 2008, (if GST is introduced in May), however, a trend will be clearer by the end of 2009. External factors also influence the Jersey RPI. The main ones being, Interest Rates and Oil prices over which Jersey has no influence. The RPI is the main guide used in negotiation for change in many commercial and residential leases, therefore, it may well lead to increase the cost of doing business as office, retail and other commercial rents rise. Similarly the cost of renting residential properties could increase. The other main use of the RPI is for the negotiation of wages and already it is being made clear that negotiations will be including GST into their wage bid. Increases in most benefits linked to Social Security are linked to RPI and the Annual Wages Index – this upward spiral could cost the States millions.  Tension is already building around real living costs and affordability.

Tax and Spend

While no-one wishes to pay extra in taxes or charges – most of us have to watch how much we spend and so public spending is also an issue that concerns us all. Greater transparency and public access is required in order for the general public to play an active role and be involved in an informed manner. Data Protection and a degree of privacy are important but surely it should not be used as a tool to deny the public legitimate access to information about how THEIR money is being spent??

These are all areas the Consumer Council will be keeping an eye on and responding to when necessary. GST is coming in – there is nothing we can do to stop it – what we can do is use all our powers and resources to make absolutely sure that no consumer is being “ripped off” further than this tax demands. If it is meant to be a 3% rise then let’s make quite sure that it stays at 3%. Nearer the time we will also be asking you to make regular contact and let us know how you are finding the new GST inclusive prices.