 Consumers face paying more at the till than is marked on labels throughout most of January after the government said it would consider relaxing the rules on goods labelling when value-added tax returns to 17.5 per cent in the new year.
Retailers at present have a grace period of two weeks during which they do not have to change the labels on their goods, even if they have increased in price after VAT returns from 15 to 17.5 per cent.
However, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said on Friday that it would consider extending that period to four weeks, meaning that customers could be charged more than they had expected during most of the January sales period.
 The department said the changes were intended to help retailers cope with the extra work of adapting to the tax changes during the sales season.
Which?, the consumer watchdog, expressed concern that customers might be left confused by finding that their goods cost more when they reached the sales till.
A spokesman said: “We would like to see stores prominently display information about any discrepancies so that customers get no nasty surprises when they get to the till.”
Retailers welcomed the change, saying it would ease the burden of making the change at their busiest time of year.
Tom Ironside, of the British Retail Consortium, said: “For some retailers, who have to change more than 10,000 prices within each store, this would be an extremely valuable change to the legislation.” |
