Pictured: Deputy Ferbrache’s open letter can be read in full HERE.
The next States meeting, scheduled to start on 25 January will include the tax debate which could see a goods and services tax introduced for the first time. A similar charge was implemented in the immediate post-war era to fund the repair work to island infrastructure and peoples’ lives but otherwise Guernsey has never had one.
Deputy Ferbrache has said the tax debate will be “a decision that the States must make in order to shape the future of island life for decades to come”.
He says it is his “biggest concern” as he takes time out over Christmas and looks ahead to the new year.
“We will ask Deputies to support a package of measures that will help raise enough revenue to protect essential services as pressure on those services, health care and pensions in particular, rises dramatically.
Pictured: The tax proposals were presented at a public meeting last month, with a fair amount of opposition to them.
“It is a package of measures which includes a new tax for our community – a tax on goods and services – which is understandably unwelcome and unpopular. But it also includes a reduction in income tax, better income tax allowances and the introduction of social security allowances, meaning as a package it will see many low and middle-income households better off compared to now.
“It is a difficult decision and I fully understand why some of my political colleagues dread having to make it, but my greatest concern for 2023 is that we instead kick this can down the road further, leaving a bigger problem for our children to face.”
Deputy Ferbrache has insisted yet again that the changes to our tax systems are needed to protect our essential services while preparing our finances to deal with “many other challenges in the year to come, some that we can foresee now but undoubtedly there will be unexpected ones too”.
P&R’s plans are likely to face strong opposition in the States with other deputies including former Treasury Ministers Charles Parkinson and Gavin St Pier both previously confirming they are working on amendments to the proposals.
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