But his plans have been heavily criticised by duty-free companies, airlines and ferry companies who have called the idea “economically flawed and operationally unenforceable” and saying it could lead to higher fares and the disappearance of some routes.
The UK Travel Retail Forum – whose members include airports, airlines and duty-free retailers, along with Condor Ferries, Manche Iles Express, Flybe and World Duty Free – say they are “extremely concerned” by Senator Ozouf’s amendment and the impact it could have have “upon connectivity and key aviation and maritime transport routes from Jersey to the UK and wider Europe.”
In a letter sent to all States Members, urging them to reject the amendment, the UK TRF wrote: “This amendment is misguided, lacks any economic or operational rationale, and if adopted could cause significant damage to air and sea routes from the island. It could also completely distract our Customs Officers from the important role of keeping dangerous and illicit substances off the island and have them tied up in the largely pointless confiscation of goods from inadvertent tourists.”
The group warns that, if adopted, the amendment could lead to higher fares and may even make “some routes difficult to maintain.” They explain that the revenue generated by duty-free sales is “an important income stream for sea and air carriers and at airports. “Any significant decrease to this revenue through changes to travellers’ allowances may have consequent impact on travel options for locals and visitors alike.”
Pictured: The UK Travel Retail Forum say that duty free sales are “an important income stream for sea and air carriers and at airports.”
They say the proposed changes would also lead to “many thousands of tourists” being criminalised for “inadvertently buying a carton of tobacco in duty free.”
“Jersey would be the only territory in Europe with such an allowance which is bound to confuse tourists. Hardly the welcome that Jersey is world famous for!”
The group also questions “the enforceability of this badly thought-out amendment,” and “whether it is in the interest of Jersey to have Customs Officers pre-occupied with finding an extra packet of tobacco in a tourist’s luggage, when they already have their hands full looking for dangerous and illicit substances.”
The UK TRF also hit out at Senator Ozouf’s suggestion that the reduction in duty free allowance will bring in an extra £1.5 million in Duty. “We strongly disagree with this assertion. For that to happen, the vast bulk of duty free purchases would have to be replaced by duty paid purchases on the island of Jersey. Whilst clearly there may be some substitution, we see no evidence whatsoever that this would happen on the scale suggested.
“On the contrary we believe this amendment will result in more smuggling and very little extra sales in Jersey.”
Pictured: Senator Ozouf will be defending his amendments at the next States Assembly on Tuesday.
However, last night the Treasury published a proposed change to Senator Ozouf’s plan, which would allow Members to agree to reductions in the allowance “in principle”, but only subject to a review in 2018, before coming into force the year after. It also doesn’t commit them to exactly what the reductions might be.
It says that the review would include:
– “A comparison of the tobacco duty – free allowance in jurisdictions across the globe .
– “The economic and distributional impacts of a reduction of the amount of duty – free tobacco t hat can be imported into Jersey – including particularly the impact on the tourist industry.
– “The administrative implications on Customs: parti cularly since the relevant duty – free shops (e.g. those based in UK airports) are unlikely to receive sufficien t demand to stock cartons of 40 cigarettes , meaning that travell ers to Jersey are unlikely to be able to purchase their duty – free allowance – resulting in them having to buy no cigarettes or purchasing cartons of 200 cigarettes and hence tempting them to commit an offence or have to declare the excess and pay the rel ev ant duty on arrival in Jersey.
– “Discussions with Guernsey to determine whether a pan – Chann el Islands approach to the duty- free limit can be agreed.”