Labour's promise of GST off fruit and veg - what would be covered, what would not
Labour's promise of GST off fruit and veg - what would be covered, what would not
One of Labour's big election promises is to take the 15 percent GST off fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables from April 2024, if re-elected. Here's what it would cover.
I think this is an excellent policy, and a long time coming. This is done overseas with good effect. While I don't think it's a magic bullet, it is definitely a step in the right direction.
Government either need to privatize or bring a government shopping way into the fray. Consumers are getting fleeced on every shop. No point allowing supermarkets the ability to bully the farmers. No one can fight the supermarkets and they make mega profits.
Food shops are second biggest expediture after rent. There are better ways than taking her off. Really need to break up the monopoly and stop the supermarkets price fixing. There's no reason to bring prices down as there isn't competition.
So because it isn't a perfect, one-stop, solution, we shouldn't do anything at all?
Progress is made in small steps, not single giant strides.
It is far from perfect. It's a labour manifesto. If they get in. I've heard plenty from them about fixing housing and yet they refused to change the tax brackets and refused to hold the such accountable.
There was stuff In stuff calculating that you'd save $18 a month. Pretty pathetic. Better than nothing but still very pathetic.
This has been discussed and debated for years, and the point we keep coming back to is that our GST scheme is so cost effective to administer precisely because it doesn't have many exemptions.
There are far better, more cost effective ways to help people than this, adjusting tax brackets for inflation would be an ideal start. Funding food banks and lunches in schools would be another.
Introduce another tax bracket already!
Admittedly that's tricky with most excess money not actually being earned but reinvested, maybe I'm advocating for a CGT (thanks for wholeheartedly trashing that idea, Jacinda!)
Commentators often make it sound as if it would be soooo overwhelmingly complicated
I agree. It's really not that complicated. The whole edge case argument is totally exaggerated. Yes, let's no do something that benefits people's health because we might get sued is such a weak argument.
I've just posted a follow up article, there's a lot of economists who think this is a bad idea.