The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Consumers should see the cost of various food and beverage items “go down considerably” after the Government yesterday outlined numerous duty reductions in the 2017-2018 Budget.

Super Value’s owner, Rupert Roberts, though, expressed concern that the proposed 20 percentage point duty reduction on bathroom tissue would make it “difficult” for the supermarket chain’s own brand to compete.

As part of its Budget measures, the Government moved to make milk, mixtures of fruits and nuts, yoghurt, salmon fillet, shrimp and prawns, pastas, canned and/or preserved vegetables, juices, jams, fruit jellies and marmalades duty-free.

Duty on ice cream is bring reduced from 30 per cent to 20 per cent, along with the duty on bread, cakes, pastries and chips. Toilet tissue is going from 45 to 25 per cent.

Mr Roberts told Tribune Business: “All of this going to be a big part in reducing the cost of living. That’s what we are trying to do. We are trying to put food on the table at a best possible price. and shelf prices are going to go down considerably with these reductions.”

He added: “Some people will be affected by the duty reductions on juice, as we are going to be with the toilet paper. The duty had been set at the current rate to protect the local industry. The duty drop on the toilet paper is certainly going to make it difficult for us to compete because we produce our own brand.”

Mr Roberts said 14 workers are employed at Super Value’s bathroom tissue/towel manufacturing facility.

“We may have to go back at them and see if we can fix that,” he added of the Government. “We have to check that out. If the idea is to reduce the cost of living, they should have also looked at eggs because we don’t produce enough locally and the consumer is being penalised with the duty on eggs.”

Mr Roberts urged the Government to move towards lowering the duty on more healthy food options. “It seems as though we are moving towards lowering the prices on unhealthy food, and it’s certainly going to create a problem for Dr Sands and what they want to do with NHI,” he said.

“We should reduce the duty on healthy stuff and put the high tariff on the unhealthy stuff. We’re doing it the other way around and it has to be corrected some day. I guess we can’t get everything right all at once, but as time goes on we’ll see what happens.”