Forget for a moment the debate on the relative benefits of income tax cuts vs. consumption tax cuts. Just thinking about the upcoming 1% reduction in the GST, there’s lots of little cases where the consumer is sure to be screwed by vendors not passing along the savings. Last Wednesday & Thursday provided a number of examples:
My lunch from the cafeteria at work was something like $4, including tax. Will it suddenly drop to $3.97 on July 1st? Not likely.
Knowing I’d be having a late dinner downtown, I grabbed a snack from the vending machine in the afternoon. It’s $1 now, imagine the chaos if it had to return $0.01 each time in the future!
I drove downtown and parking was $5. I don’t think I’ll be paying $4.96 next month.
Then I was off to the movies: Hard Candy and Lady Vengeance, $9.95 and $10.95 respectively at the Carlton and Cumberland. I can bet those prices won’t be changing to $9.86 and $10.85.
The next day I filled up the gas tank. When the clock counts down to July 1, those prices at the pump aren’t likely to roll back automatically. If anything, being a long weekend, it’ll probably jump up a few cents for the heck of it.
Very interesting, thanks for sharing!