South Irish vat rate ups to 21.5%

coloured pony

If you live near the Northern Irish border, its chock a bloc with euro
punters heading north. On the day the London govt reduced vat to
15%, rubber lips hiked it up to 21.5% in the republic. That a staggering
differential of 6.5%. With the euro punt almost now worth a £, it must be penny/cent from heaven.


Belfast is now the shopping capitol if Ireland, and B&Bs near the border who normally close after the season are now full of euro shoppers.
Source BBC radio four "The today Prog".

Can you imagine Maplin reducing its prices nett, the way they hiked them up in the UK.

Bob

compufunk

The hike in VAT in the republic was a stupid move, almost everywhere else where there are economic problems, they are reducing tax to encourage spending.

Its a treble double blow to ROI retailers considering, the hike in VAT here, a reduction up north and the weak pound. Most of the ROI population are within a two hour drive of NI, you cant blame them for heading where they get more value for money.

In fact there are lots of NI retailers offering a straight exchange of €1 for £1.

To be fair, the Irish budget was back in mid October, long before Alistair Darling announced the reduction, but I cant believe that two countries that trade so closely didn't consult each other before making decisions like this.

rolfw

Yes, does seem odd that they've continued with the change, given the circumstances.

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compufunk

They had to make a Uturn on practically every other measure they tried to introduce in the budget, I'd say the only reason they continued was to spare even more embarrassment on their parts.

I've been having a look around today and the price differences are crazy.

Here is one of the more extreme differences I found with Argos.

JVC LT 42DS9BJ 42IN 1080P Super Slim LCD

Argos Ireland
_http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/5366354/c_1/1|category_root|Home+entertainment+and+sat+nav|103 91911/c_2/2|cat_10391911|Televisions|11845989/c_3/3|cat_11845989|40+and+42+inch+LCD+TVs|11962983.htm

€2199.00 (or £2113.42)


Argos UK
_http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10001&catalogId=1500001151&langId=-1&searchTerms=JVC+LT+42DS9BJ+42IN+1080P+SUPER+SLIM +LCD&Submit=GO+%3E


£978.99 or (€1017)


Less than half price

A saving of around £1135. And for me and many others its only a 20 minute drive between the nearest Argos in the republic to the nearest one in the North.

There are many other examples of the same kind of difference.

Retailers usually quote higher overhead costs as the reason for higher prices, but this could never account for double the price!

You could fly from Cork to Belfast, Stay in a fancy hotel for a weekend, buy your 42In TV and still come home with change in your savings.

What a bunch of morons we have in government who allow this to go on!