GST looks set to return as States backs GWP
STATES members were warned to expect another debate on a Goods & Services Tax in the autumn, as members discussed their priorities for the next two years and how they should be funded.
After a full day of debate, the Policy & Resources member with responsibility for leading the prioritisation process, Deputy Bob Murray, said ‘at some point, GST will come back’.
‘It’s not popular,’ he said, ‘but we’re not here to be popular.’
While reassuring members that ‘this is not a trap’, he described taxes as ‘an investment in our future’.
‘If the public could understand that, I think they would accept that we have to raise more funds,’ he added.
Scrutiny Management president Yvonne Burford pressed Deputy Murray to be clear about whether P&R intended to bring back proposals for a GST in September, when the final stage of the Government Work Plan will see States members choose what work they will commit to and what they will ditch.
He said P&R would be coming back with a range of scenarios for members to choose from. ‘And one of those scenarios may very well include GST.
‘I think we’d be foolish not to include it,’ he said. ‘It’s a revenue-raising measure. There will be others, so it’s a question of which scenario suits most people’s palate, ultimately.’
Deputy Murray thanked members for their contributions to a wide-ranging debate which included discussion of sports funding, housing, agency nurses, Les Ozouets campus and phase two of the modernisation of the Princess Elizabeth Hospital.
‘This debate gives us a sense of what we have to come back to you with and that’s what we’ll do,’ he said.
The debate was on a ‘green paper’ report, which meant no alterations could be made – that opportunity will be there for deputies in September when it returns.
The two propositions were approved 29-9 and 28-9. The first was to agree to commit to ‘public service resilience, security and governance’, ‘a plan for sustainable health and care services’ and ‘[growing] economic competitiveness’, and the second was to agree that the GWP ‘must be both affordable and deliverable’ and that P&R should return with ‘detailed funding proposals’.
