Store has not passed on VAT cut

2:20pm Friday 5th December 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

BOSSES of Kidderminster’s TJ Hughes store have admitted it has not deducted the 2.5 per cent VAT reduction from all of its products due to administration costs.

A spokeswoman for the department store, in High Street, said it had, instead, opted to provide more “substantial” discounts on its customers’ favourite products and ranges.

She added: “We have done this for two main reasons, the administration costs incurred by the change would be considerable and it is by keeping administration costs low that we manage to keep our prices low.

“The very small ticket price of most of our items mean that the savings would, generally, be in pence and, therefore, not as beneficial to our customers as larger discounts off fewer items.”

Chancellor, Alistair Darling, cut the rate of VAT from 17.5 per cent to 15 per cent to stimulate growth in the economy.

TJ Hughes customer, Julie Bryant, of Kidderminster, said she was “disappointed” the store had not slashed all of its prices.

She added she had spent £50 in the store yesterday and was “shocked” when she did not receive the discount.

“Even the charity shops in Kidderminster have taken it off their new items,” Mrs Bryant said. “It seems unfair that a store as big as TJ Hughes is not taking it off all of its prices.”