Move to exempt farming vehicles from VRD

The committee have lodged an amendment to the Budget, which would exempt agricultural vehicles and increase the overall deficit by an estimated £100,000.

Deputy Gerald Voisin’s committee – in his last States sitting at the Budget debate on 29 November – will try to convince the States that the agricultural exemption needs to be maintained.

They say if they have to cover the £100,000 bill, it will cut into the money they can spend on the Rural Economy Strategy.

And if they did not cover the costs, they say farmers will not buy new vehicles until VRD is replaced by sales tax in 2008, which could ‘decimate’ small businesses supplying agricultural machinery.