"Local firms are being held back by unfair GST system" – Sandpiper boss

Wednesday 06 January 2016

One of Jersey’s biggest employers says that foreign companies escaping GST on imports is making it harder for local companies to compete for business.

In an interview in this month’s Connect magazine – which is out around town now – Tony O’Neill says that creating a level-playing field on tax and offering free parking in town are needed to support local businesses against UK and international businesses shipping goods in to the Island.

Mr O’Neill, who recently brought a stake in the business after a management buyout, says in the “Unplugged” cover feature that the current rules are effectively penalising local firms, and have to change.

He said that while he sympathises with politicians who have to make difficult choices and who he says face significant criticism, he has called for local businesses to be given “a fighting chance”.

In the interview, Mr O’Neill said: “I think I’d have to look at how you stop penalising local companies. 

“If you take this to the end of the road scenario, you could potentially end up with a major UK branch sitting on the south coast of England, with huge warehouses, and all the cost/benefit advantages that they bring, shipping goods into the Islands, and destroying local jobs and destroying local infrastructure. 

“What exacerbates that in many respects, is that local retail is penalised comparative to [international operators] because of the addition of GST - so imports are not even attracting GST.

“To my mind that’s the thing you have to address.  You have to create a level playing field.  You have to, not necessarily protect the job creators in the Island, but you have to at least give them a fighting chance.”