Fri, 02 Jul 2010

The VAT Increase

Hardly surprising to many, Mr Osbourne put the VAT rate up with effect at the beginning of 2011. To many this is seen as a major kick in the teeth and many people view it as increasing our chance of a double dip recession. Its taken me a week to think this over, along with many of the other items that arose from the budget, and whilst I personally detest VAT I appreciate the economic situation, and can understand why this has been chosen to be increase.

However, to soften the blow somewhat, I think bringing in the VAT increase should coincide with the change of rating of a number of items. For example:

The first two should not really be considered as luxuries; Contraceptives have the potential to save the state significant amounts of money by reducing STI prevalence and lowering the risk of unwanted children. Changing these would more than pay for the decrease in VAT revenue, both financially and socially.

As for bikes, one of the many policies of our beloved coalition government is that of decreasing the environmental impact of the country as a whole. There are various schemes out there to try and encourage environmental friendliness, including a scheme to get low cost bikes from your employer. However, this is only really a baby step, and many companies - especialy small-to-medium enterprises - are unable to truly take advantage of the cycle scheme. For this reason I propose zero rating bikes and bike lights, to try and increase bike ownership and bike use. Given the number of motorists complaining about cyclists with no lights and being hard to see, reducing the VAT on bike lights to encourage ownership, and with it, their use, can only be a good thing.

Footnote: Many sexual health services including free contraceptives are available in your community. You can search for your nearest resource on the NHS website Here.

posted at: 14:32 | path: / | permanent link to this entry | 0 comments


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