But critics say a 10% increase in offshore prices won’t even come near to closing the gap on the massive discrepancies between domestic and overseas retail costs.
But Black says there still needs to be movement on the issue.
“The amount of GST lost is going to continue to grow. This broadens the debate, and shows the consequences of not levelling the playing field.”
Myer chief Bernie Brookes yesterday drew attention to the issue as well, saying in an investors’ call the government needs to move the threshold to a sustainable level or eliminate it.
“Myer and other retailers are not looking for a free kick in this area; we just want to have a level playing field,” he said yesterday.
However, as SmartCompany reported last week, politicians on both sides are unlikely to act soon despite the release of a report into the low-value threshold which found the postal system requires urgent reform and could deliver returns on GST if the threshold is dropped and those reforms are put into place.
The NRA and Brookes aren’t the only voices speaking out on this topic, nearly two years after it first appeared in the media. Recently, Australian Retailers Association executive director Russell Zimmerman told SmartCompany the government needs to reform a postal system creaking beneath a growing numbers of parcels.
Several of the most recent report’s recommendations include more performance benchmarks for the postal system and using more electronic data.
