Asda’s Chairman has hit out at Rachel Reeves’s “very, very damaging” tax rises, warning they will force the supermarket to look closely at how many workers it can afford to employ. The Telegraph has the story.
Lord Rose said it was “perfectly” clear that the Chancellor had not delivered a Budget for businesses, saying extra taxes were “disproportionately heavy” on larger companies which employ a lot of staff.
Asda expects its tax bill to rise by £100 million following the Chancellor’s decision to increase employers’ National Insurance (NI) contributions by 1.2% to 15% from April and to lower the level at which they have to start paying it.
Lord Rose said: “This is a very, very damaging piece of extra taxation on business. At the end of the day, it’s not going to add to growth. It’s going to probably be inflationary.
“We’ll pass on de minimis, but there will be some increases. When we make our plan for 2025, it will get us to look very hard at what we can afford.”
He said the supermarket industry was “very efficient”, adding: “Every retailer you speak to will be saying, ‘Bloody hell, this is hard for us.’”
The comments follow a series of warnings over higher grocery prices in recent days. The boss of Marks & Spencer on Wednesday said he could not rule out price increases given the “pretty significant costs” coming down the line. M&S said the NI raid would push its tax bill up by £60 million, with minimum wage changes expected to add another £60 million in costs.
Sainsbury’s on Thursday said it was facing a £140 million hit from the NI changes.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.