GST prospects '50-50' as States delays vote

After about eight hours of political tussle on Policy & Resources tax proposals there were still 11 deputies who wanted to speak, so the Bailiff deferred the issue until the next meeting on Wednesday 13 October.

Deputy Mark Helyar, the treasury lead for P&R, said he felt a delay had helped the recent secondary education debate, and so was unperturbed.

He also welcomed a considerable number of ideas raised by colleagues to save money or raise revenue.

‘Some of them have been really interesting ideas, including using tax to generate growth, which is something we haven’t looked at in any depth.’

Deputy Helyar said he believed the proposal for P&R to go forward and investigate still GST hung in the balance.

‘It’s about 50-50 at the moment,’ he said at the end of the States day.

‘But this is the beginning of a longer discussion.

‘It is very valid to say we haven’t had enough public consultation – there needs to be more of it. Whether it’s GST or something else, we are going to have to close the gap somehow. It was also very positive that almost every member has said we need to save money.’

Now debate will restart on Wednesday 13 October. Deputy Steve Falla described the delay as regrettable but said it would not have been productive to continue debate until 8pm.

Deputy Peter Roffey, who did propose that members should continue, said that it was ‘unfortunate but it can’t be helped’.

And Deputy Victoria Oliver said the tax review should have been debated in a stand-alone meeting, rather than alongside other matters.

‘There should have been a meeting allocated to this one subject.’

Deputy Carl Meerveld said that more could have been done to manage time, but he was pleased at the quality of debate which was ‘well-mannered with lots of constructive suggestions and criticisms’.

Debate included criticism of a lack of communication with the public, of a lack of action over corporate tax reform, and of an unwillingness to tax richer people more, accentuating what Deputy Sasha Kazantseva-Miller saw as a growing and ‘profound inequality’.

Deputy Gavin St Pier, who lost a proposal to pursue GST back in 2015, said that more preparatory work had been needed.

‘If GST is to be successfully introduced in Guernsey, people’s hearts and minds must have been won well before any debate on the floor of this Assembly.

‘It requires 18 months of engagement so that the community can understand the issues and advantages of a GST, along with absolute clarity that would be put in place for low- and middle-income householders.’