The Treasury’s independent forecaster is to review the axeing of tax-free shopping for tourists, raising the possibility that a decision that leisure companies and retailers have blasted for deterring visitors and losing the UK billions in sales could be reversed.
With a change of heart likely to be seen as a shot in the arm for struggling businesses, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is to examine the costs and benefits associated with Rishi Sunak’s 2020 decision to end the retail scheme when he was chancellor of the exchequer.
Richard Hughes, chair of the OBR, said the government spending watchdog plans to publish its conclusions alongside the budget next month.
In a letter to Conservative backbench MP Sir Geoffrey Robert Clifton-Brown in December, he said: “We will undertake this analysis in the first months of 2024 with an aim of publishing its conclusions alongside the spring budget.”
The review, first reported in the Sunday Times, comes “in the light of…
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