Finance Minister Kevin Falcon introduced a bill yesterday to phase out the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) and return a provincial sales tax (PST) to B.C. starting April 1, 2013.
Falcon told a media lockup before he introduced the bill that B.C.'s future PST will have all of the exemptions that were present in the old PST, which was phased out on July 1, 2010. These include:
- haircuts;
- restaurant meals;
- gym memberships;
- bicycles; and
- other products and services.
The bill itself does not include a reference to those exemptions but Falcon said that separate regulations created this fall will stipulate that the exemptions exist.
The B.C. government announced on August 26 2011 that British Columbians, in a mail-in ballot, had voted 54.73% to 45.27% to return to the PST system.
One change to the PST will be that there will be a new government computer system to allow businesses to administer their accounts online.
Earlier this year, the B.C. government announced that it reached an agreement with Ottawa to repay the $1.6 billion in transition funding it received when B.C. adopted the HST.
Falcon said the province has five years to repay in full the transition funding. Ottawa has agreed to waive interest charges.
