Greater transparency in latest States accounts is welcomed
GUERNSEY’S accounts have been praised as being more transparent and informative, but there are fears that the overall £135m. deficit will be used to bring in a goods and services tax.
Former States chief economist Andy Sloan was pleased with the overall presentation of this year’s figures.
‘The accounts are becoming more comprehensive, more informative and, dare I say it, more transparent,’ he said in a column in today’s Guernsey Press.
He welcomed the consolidated approach to presenting income and expenditure, but queried government’s heavy dependence on investment losses in the statement of income.
Factored with depreciation, included for the first time, the States presented an annual deficit of £135m., and an operational loss of £3m.
‘An operating loss of £3m. on gross revenues of £800m. with £3.2bn in financial assets stashed away in one reserve or another suggests the fiscal position is in comparative good health – admittedly the comparator is most public sectors, which are fiscal basket cases,’ said Dr Sloan.
States Treasury lead Deputy Mark Helyar has again raised the prospect of a goods and services tax as being a good way to raise revenue, but Harry Dick-Cleland, chairman of chartered accountants Cleland and Co, said that the States should still be pursuing other ideas.
‘I just feel that he and P&R have their head in the sand and keep banging on about GST,’ he said.
Mr Dick-Cleland put forward several alternative ideas for raising revenue in a letter to the Guernsey Press in January, including bringing back a motor tax and paid parking.
‘If they’d introduced motor tax five years’ ago, which I suggested, we’d have about £5m. in the bank account today.’
The idea of distance charging, which is being investigated by Environment & Infrastructure, is ‘a complete and utter waste of time’, he said. ‘You’d be taxing the better off because they have more cars.’
Mr Dick-Cleland said the States had been ‘faffing around’ with paid parking.
‘We have our parking clocks so if you charged £25 a year for a clock, that would raise a significant amount of money per annum. All these suggestions are easily done and the cost of collection is peanuts.
‘They just have their heads in the sand and they’re not thinking outside of the box.’
Mr Dick-Cleland welcomed the latest accounts’ moving closer to Ipsas, the accounting standards for the public sector, but one effect of this was to bring the depreciation of fixed assets into the figures and in 2022 this amounted to some £30m.
Also included in the deficit section were investment losses of £88.6m.
‘We’re in July, seven months down the road, when they turn around and say: “We have a deficit”,’ he said.
One of the States’ depreciating fixed assets was the former King Edward VII Hospital, and Mr Dick-Cleland wondered why that was not being valued with a view to being sold.
