{"id":7163,"date":"2023-08-14T05:25:53","date_gmt":"2023-08-13T17:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=7163"},"modified":"2023-08-14T05:25:53","modified_gmt":"2023-08-13T17:25:53","slug":"labours-promise-of-gst-off-fruit-and-veg-what-would-be-covered-what-would-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=7163","title":{"rendered":"Labour’s promise of GST off fruit and veg – what would be covered, what would not"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of Labour’s big election promises is to take the 15 percent goods and services tax (GST) off fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables from April 2024, if re-elected.<\/p>\n

That would mean savings of about $4 a week, on an average spend of $30 in the fruit and vegetable section.<\/p>\n

The determining factor for which products are covered, and which are not, is whether there has been any processing; so the exemption would not apply to “canned and dried items, or to juices”, according to the guidelines released with Labour’s policy.<\/p>\n

Reference to “zero-rated” means no GST applied.<\/p>\n

“Processed in this context means cooked or combined with other ingredients.<\/p>\n

“This rules out anything canned because of the heating process that accompanies canning. ‘Processed’ does not mean being cut up and wrapped without additives. This means that pre-prepared vegetables like fresh spinach in a bag would be zero-rated.”<\/p>\n

Frozen mixed vegetables would avoid GST, however “potatoes mashed into chips, coated in canola oil and then frozen would be excluded and would still attract GST”.<\/p>\n

A list was run past Labour leader Chris Hipkins at the weekend’s policy launch.<\/p>\n

\"Prime<\/p>\n

Labour leader Chris Hipkins.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0RNZ \/ Angus Dreaver<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A fresh corn cob would be exempt, but not a can of corn – he said people would “still have that choice if it’s cheaper”.<\/p>\n

Cut pineapple – “that’s fresh and it’s unprocessed” – would be included.<\/p>\n

The jury was out on dried or semi-dried tomatoes. However “dried products are processed”, Hipkins said.<\/p>\n

Bags of mixed lettuce and mixed frozen peas and corn would be exempt.<\/p>\n

Coleslaw, though, would be a different story if there was “value-added … if it has mayonnaise added into it then it won’t be covered”.<\/p>\n

A technical group would “make sure the technical details of this would be worked through before the 1st of April when it comes in,” Hipkins said.<\/p>\n

A newly established Grocery Commissioner would monitor supermarkets’ pricing behaviour “to ensure retailers are passing on the full impact of the GST removal … and will take action if it’s not happening”.<\/p>\n

National offers tax cut alternative<\/h3>\n

The GST policy would cost the government about $2 billion over four years, made up in part by cancelling a Covid-related depreciation for commercial property owners.<\/p>\n

Labour says it is a targeted way of easing the cost of living pressures and stacks up well against the National Party’s tax plan.<\/p>\n

“The current economic environment means now isn’t the time for unfunded and inflationary tax cuts,” Hipkins said.<\/p>\n

“New Zealanders now have a clear choice in this election. Huge tax cuts for millionaires and CEOs under National, or relief at the checkout and support for working families under Labour.”<\/p>\n

\"Deputy<\/p>\n

National Party finance spokesperson Nicola Willis.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0RNZ \/ Angus Dreaver<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Hitting back, National said removing GST would do “very little to help families suffering through the cost of living crisis, but will have supermarket owners rubbing their hands with glee”.<\/p>\n

Finance spokesperson Nicola Willis said New Zealanders were “being smashed by a cost of living crisis that has dragged into its third year and the best Labour has to offer is a tax change worth less than a kumara”.<\/p>\n

“Labour are foolish to suggest supermarkets will pass all of this reduction on to shoppers,” she said.<\/p>\n

“National would cut out the middle-man – instead of passing tax cuts through the local Pak’nSave, we would put the relief direct into people’s bank accounts with income tax reduction.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of Labour’s big election promises is to take the 15 percent goods and services tax (GST) off fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables from April 2024, if re-elected. That would mean savings of about $4 a week, on an average spend of $30 in the fruit and vegetable section. The determining factor for which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":7164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7163"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7165,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7163\/revisions\/7165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}