£50M Extra GST Cost To Taxpayer 'Untrue'

Guernsey's senior committee says claims that the taxpayer will foot a multi-million pound bill to introduce GST are 'deeply misleading.'

The three deputies behind the 'fairer alternative' to P&R's plans made the claim this week.

Two are professionally qualified accountants and say that P&R has under-valued the true cost to the public purse of introducing GST, which would be in excess of £90M.

The senior committee doesn't dispute the £50M impact on the States' pension fund but says it has factored this into its cost assessment of implementing the tax.

GST is inflationary, meaning it will push up prices and devalue the purchasing power of money in the short term, but P&R says the pension fund - worth £1.5 billion - is able to take this knock without the need for taxpayer money to shore it up.

It says that market variations of its value are 'par for the course' and it is 'misleading' to present them as an additional cost.

The debate on GST begins on 17 October, a day earlier than usual. P&R's policy letter faces nine amendments.