Dear Sir,

The GST debate is soon to be re-opened, for the forthcoming resumption of debate has set my mind to thinking about the potential for unforeseen problems. I’ve identified something that we as an island community will suffer in the event of the implementation of this new form of taxation.

Guernsey is an island served by a limited number of postal and parcel delivery services. There is little or no opportunity to just nip out on the car to a major UK based retailer in the car, so we have to rely on the delivery of items by one of the established mail carrier services. Now, up until 2025, we had a number of airborne, “Overnight” postal services at our fingertips and in the event of a time sensitive delivery, we could reasonably expect a next day service to be easily available.

Fast forward a year and the Guernsey Post service now only offers a Sea carried mail delivery service. It is reported that there is no call for this previously available “airborne” service, but many commentators on social media report that a lack of knowledge around the availability of the now discontinued service, may have more to do with its low take up rather than a lack of demand.

That aside, with the introduction of the proposed new taxation, it is proposed that a number of new Customs Officers would be employed to meticulously sift and sort through the incoming mail, to identify those items that would be captured by the addition of the GST. These items would be held by Customs until the additional taxation was paid on their value and then released for delivery once the tax had been correctly paid.

I would ask the question, am I the only one who sees a further erosion to our way of life here by a further reduced quality of postal service due to the inevitable delays in delivery. The knock-on effect of the extra complication and extended waiting times for items will be considerable. There is reportedly good evidence from Jersey to show that the postal system has slowed since the introduction of this process in that island. We will no longer be able to count on time sensitive items being delivered, in a timely manner. Many aspects of island life will be affected. I can think of dozens of times I have relied on a swift postal delivery of replacement equipment, relating to my chosen sport. If the postman had not saved the day, I would have had to miss out on attending an event. The missing out on some of these events would have had significant personal financial cost to me as a participant.

Such time sensitive postal deliveries affect all our lives. Shopping for last minute presents will become a thing of the past. Vital repairs to infrastructure machinery will take longer. Delivery of items such as automotive and marine parts will be delayed. The list goes on. I must ask, has P&R really done is homework on how such a process will inevitably affect our lives as islanders reliant on the postal services.

I have discussed this subject with a number of Deputies and it doesn’t seem to have been one of the topics fully explored yet.

Gregory Guille,
St Martin