Treasury and Resources Department minister Deputy Charles Parkinson.

TREASURY minister Charles Parkinson has admitted that the island could regret not delaying the introduction of zero-10.
His comment comes in the face of the global credit crunch and the deteriorating financial picture.
Deputy Rhoderick Matthews failed in November with a last-ditch attempt to delay the tax strategy’s introduction for a year, citing the fact that the island was too easily giving up about £100m. of revenue.
But Deputy Parkinson felt at the  time that it would have been too late, even though he had tried to delay it himself in March 2007.
Former chief minister Mike Torode announced just ahead of the general election in April that the previous States had signed off with a bumper financial year in 2007 when the surplus was up to £70m.
‘The surplus for 2007 was a genuine surplus and the economy was very buoyant. But we were also receiving taxes from companies in the region of £120m.,’ said Deputy Parkinson.
‘I suggested delaying it in March 2007 during the elections following Fallagate. I told the House that if I was elected Treasury minister at that time, I would delay its introduction to 1 January 2009 to coincide with Jersey.’
But Deputy Parkinson lost that battle with Deputy Lyndon Trott, who is now chief minister.
Financial worries were heightened when the Bank of England announced a sharp rise in UK inflation to 3.3%.
But Deputy Parkinson is not keen on the island following another Jersey initiative – a goods and services tax.
One would be introduced only as part of stage two of the zero-10 tax strategy, anticipated to be between 2011 and 2013, depending on the performance of stage-one implementations, which include controlling public-sector expenditure and increasing indirect taxes.
A GST was just one of the options if the first part of the strategy failed to deliver.
Although Treasury has agreed to carry out research into the feasibility of introducing and developing proposals for a system of GST, Deputy Parkinson is not in favour of the new tax.
‘We have been tasked with putting together the enabling legislation, but that doesn’t mean it will be introduced or it’s the best way of collecting taxes. There may be others.’