Poultry suppliers aim to turn heat on Chancellor

Published on 10/09/2012 02:06

Poultry suppliers sought to re-open the “pastygate” tax row today by backing Morrisons supermarket’s campaign to halt a rise in the tax payable on hot roast chickens.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, axed a Budget proposal to impose VAT on all hot food from next month, bowing to pressure to exclude items such as pasties, which were left to cool on 
display.

But he retained the measure for food that is kept hot, in order to close a 20-year loophole that treated supermarkets differently to takeaways, so that both types of seller are treated equally.

Morrisons, which has organised the petition campaign, 
with the support from the 
British Poultry Council, said shoppers were being treated unfairly, claiming more than 80 per cent of its customers who bought rotisserie chickens used them as part of a home roast dinner rather than a traditional takeaway.

Fresh food director Jamie Winter said: “The fact is that our customers buy their whole rotisserie chicken as part of their weekly shop, not as a takeaway.

“Our customers tell us that they simply cannot pay more in these difficult times. That’s why we’re helping them to fight this unfair tax on the Great British roast.”