VAT Refunds For Visitors To The United Kingdom

EDM number 1113 in 1993-94, proposed by Alan Williams on 25/04/1994.

That this House notes the concern being felt in the retail industry about an EC proposal, to be discussed on 16th May, to harmonize VAT refunds, in the hope of introducing a minimum of 175 ecus, ú136, to be spent before non-EC visitors can claim a VAT refund; further notes that ú2,550 million was spent on shopping by tourists to Britain in 1993, of which ú1,630 million was spent by non-EC visitors, that more than half the refunds claimed would not fall within the proposed ú136 EC limit and that this would threaten the loss of much of the ú1,630 million of shopping expenditure by non-EC visitors, affecting retailers, especially small shopkeepers, and the manufacturers of British-made clothes, footwear, toys, records, small electrical goods, and souvenir gifts of china and glass, and could have a negative impact on employment beyond the retail sector; and urges the Government to fight to retain the present system of no minimum purchase requirement, thereby protecting the British manufacturers and retailers and their employees, and retaining the revenue accrued by visitor expenditure in this country.

This motion has been signed by a total of 32 MPs.