TAN – The Afro News

HST: Friend or Foe?

Now that July 1st has come and gone, I am definitely hearing progressively more complaints about the new harmonized sales tax (HST) and how it is increasing the prices of everything. Read the full story

Hon. Gordon Campbell,

My letter to you is about the fact that the proposed HST will place further financial pressures on struggling low income earners, students, young adults, families and renters already striving to make a living. HST costs is apt to be passed onto renters who already face exorbitant rental costs.

Please reconsider the implementation of the HST to give hope to students, young adults and families already overwhelmed by anxieties. Financial stress has a direct adverse impact on mental and physical health. HST will affect the provincial health budget. Crime will go up. We will need funding to provide more policing. And so forth.

The economy of British Columbia depends on the morale of the people.

Sincerely

Farina Reinprecht

Richmond

Someone really needs to write an “HST for Dummies” book for all the gullible people who’ve been conned into believing the HST is a new tax that will cost them more money than they’re paying right now. P.T. Barnum really knew what he was talking about when he said there’s a sucker born every minute, and BC seems to be full of them these days.

There are layers and layers of hidden provincial sales tax embedded in the things you buy right now. And it works out to far more than the 7% PST you currently see on your receipts. Do people in BC really want to go on blindly paying these hidden, very costly layers of PST? I don’t.

The PST is an antiquated, costly, uncompetitive tax. BC is one of the last places in the country to do away with it and replace it with a value added HST. People need to open their eyes and start doing the math instead of running after fools and charlatans like lemmings heading for the cliff. This is definitely a case where ignorance is not bliss.

Michael McBratney

Port Moody, B.C.