Labour's GST-free fruit and vege plan cops criticism

24 Nov 2011 11:59p.m.

Bous wrote:

This is all a waste of time and money and politics at it's worst. We already don't pay any GST for most of my vegetables. We grow our own. Remember the proverb: "Teach a man to fish...and you feed him for life"...teach people to grow their own vegetables. Taking GST off won't encourage people to eat healthy. They have to be educated first, so teach them to grow their own vegetables. We have neighbours who are beneficiaries who have the land and time, who have taken advantage of our lessons and help in teaching them to put in a garden & others who are just too lazy. In Auckland there is no excuse for this. We have the climate to grow food all year..we don't "need" to but we "choose" to be as self sufficient as we can. Drop this stupid policy..and it will cost - supermarkets and cafes etc. How do you account for the fresh vegetable content in some burgers or prepared foods for goodness sake ???

24 Nov 2011 04:50p.m.

matty wrote:

Are you lot just plain gullable. Yes you can take the GST off fruit and vege, and probably quite easily. But what you can't do is control the supermarkets prices. If they remove gst from the produce we might have a period when they sell for a bit cheaper, until foodstuffs, progressive raise their profit margin. So you will end up with prices the same, less revenue for the govt and more for the supermarkets.

24 Nov 2011 02:43p.m.

Bruce wrote:

In our area, we have two main Supermarkets PaknSave and Countdown. In the last two weeks I have asked both Managers how difficult and costly it would be to remove the GST off fresh fruit and Veges. They both informed me, It wouldn't be a problem at all and won't cost anything extra, the only difference is, they won't be charging GST on fresh fruit and veges. none cost effective and easy!