Retailers call for meeting with Swinney

SCOTLAND’S biggest retailers will press for urgent talks with John Swinney this week after accusing him of a “volte face” by introducing the “son of Tesco tax” in his budget.

The Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) is demanding that the Finance Minister attend a meeting that Rural Affairs Minister Richard Lochhead had previously arranged with the major supermarkets to see how they could help the SNP deliver on some of its manifesto promises.

The lobby group said the public health levy announced in last week’s spending review is a re-packaged version of the large retail tax, which was defeated by parliament at the start of this year and which Swinney had pledged as recently as June not to reintroduce.

Jane Bevis, director of public affairs at the Scottish Retail Consortium, said it was “ironic” that the government was seeking its members’ help to support Scottish food and drink suppliers, including alcohol producers, on the one hand, and then taxing them to the hilt on the other.

“It’s difficult to work in partnership with somebody who keeps bringing surprises with very large bills attached to them,” she said.

Retailers say the tax was a “bombshell” as there had been no mention of it in the SNP manifesto. There is also a great deal of confusion about how the tax will be applied, Bevis said: “There is an awful lot of missing detail at the moment. We want to understand what the consultation process is going to be given that there was nothing up until now.”

Retailers are warning that the tax could have serious ramifications for recruitment and investment plans north of the Border and that it could even have a knock-on effect further down the supply chain.

Business rates experts are also querying how the tax will be applied and whether department stores which sell small amounts of fine wine and cigars will also be slapped with the levy.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Scotland’s health and social problems associated with alcohol and tobacco use are well documented. The public health levy, a supplement on business rates, will apply from 1 April 2012 to retail properties with a rate- able value of over £300,000 that sell both alcohol and tobacco.

The estimated income of £30 million in the first year followed by £40m each year thereafter will be used to contribute towards the preventative spend measures that will be taken forward jointly with the government, local authorities, the NHS and the Third Sector. Mr Swinney would be happy to meet the SRC.”