VAT cut today in bid for sales boost
The sales tax VAT has been brought down temporarily from today, in order to boost retail sales.Alistair Darling, chancellor of the exchequer, announced the move last week, as part of his economic stimulus package.Public works projects will be expanded and future tax rises to the corporation levy and vehicle excise duty have been scrapped.VAT has now gone from 17.5 per cent to 15 per cent until January 2010.However, some retailers have struggled to drop their prices in time for the change, director general of the British Retail Consortium Stephen Robertson told the BBC."Shops will cope, but implementing a new VAT rate in just a week will be exceptionally difficult for customers and retailers at their busiest time of year," he said."Small retailers will find all this particularly difficult to accommodate [it] will be a mammoth and costly task."
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