AU: Hort resists GST increase
NSW Farmers horticulture committee chairman and Persimmons Australia boss, Brett Guthrey said the sector was not just worried about a backlash from consumers reluctant to pay extra for fresh fruit, vegetables and other foods.
Mr Guthrey believed the rising trend in fresh food imports would go much higher, while producers supplying canneries or other processing operations would see a flood of extra imports landed in Australia, pushing local production margins to the limit and potentially forcing more food processing industry closures.
Although food was looking increasingly like a tax target, NSW Farmers was saying "no" to the GST on grocery lines in the current taxation environment.
The association wants serious research undertaken to examine the impact of GST on farmers' earnings, also identifying where the fairness and efficiency of the tax system could be improved.
Its business economics and trade committee chairman Peter Wilson said the association was not just interested in seeing fairer business taxation - including possibly lifting the threshold point at which farm tax payments kicked in - consumers also needed compensation with personal tax cuts.
Unless well considered measures were in place to help compensate the industry, including pruning existing costs, Mr Guthrie said GST on food would put Australian producers at an increasing disadvantage against cheap imports from overseas farms and processors with lower labour and regulatory costs.
Local fresh product suppliers would also be unlikely to avoid price gouging tactics employed by the highly competitive food retailers as they tried to restrain price increases for their customers.
Source: goodfruitandvegetables.com.au