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Move to exempt GST from food to be heard

A bill to exempt healthy food from GST will have its first reading this afternoon.However, Maori Party MP Rahui Katene's Goods and Services Tax (Exemption of Healthy Food) Amendment Bill is unlikely to progress further than that because it lacks governmen

NZPA
Wed, 08 Sep 2010

A bill to exempt healthy food from GST will have its first reading this afternoon.

However, Maori Party MP Rahui Katene's Goods and Services Tax (Exemption of Healthy Food) Amendment Bill is unlikely to progress further than that because it lacks government support.

Ms Katene is returning from Christchurch, which is part of her Te Tai Tonga electorate, for the first reading.

"The government's argument that my bill will cost the taxpayer too much is weak in light of it having no problem giving $1.7 billion to some 300,000 private investors, some of whom are foreigners, last week," Mrs Katene said. She was referring to the government payout through its retail deposit guarantee scheme over the South Canterbury Finance failure.

"At least with my proposal there would be benefits across the board, for every single person in this country, and especially those families struggling financially including many of my own constituents in Otautahi who've lost their homes because of the earthquake.

"My bill has planted a seed and regardless of what the government does, that seed or the rising costs of food, will continue to be a significant issue for the nation until the government confronts it."

Revenue Minister Peter Dunne previously said her proposal wasn't viable because if some items were exempted from GST there would be demands for others to be given the same treatment.

He said removing GST from the food specified in the bill would mean the loss of millions of tax dollars which would have to be found somewhere else.

National MP Jacqui Dean's Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Waitaki Easter Trading) Amendment Bill will also get its first reading.

NZPA
Wed, 08 Sep 2010
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Move to exempt GST from food to be heard
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