GST exemption on medical supplies (FOI)

​Request 

A

Under the GST Law there are several exemptions that specify when GST cannot be charged.

B

Schedule 5 Para 4 Sub Para 1 states that the supply of medical services or goods from a medical practitioner registered in Jersey is exempt from GST.

However under the same Law, Jersey Customs collect GST on the import of the same medical supplies into Jersey.

C

How much GST has been collected by year on the import of medical supplies into Jersey?

Clarification requested

Please could you specify the date range you require rather than the broad “by year”?

Clarified request

 I’d be grateful if you would provide the figures for the following periods:

•  6 May 2008 to 31 December 2008 inclusive

• 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2009 inclusive

• 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2010 inclusive

• 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2011 inclusive

• 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2012 inclusive

• 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2013 inclusive

• 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2014 inclusive

• 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2015 inclusive

• 1 January 2016 to 30 September 2016 inclusive (if available)

Response

Your request is refused because the public authority does not hold the information in a format which would enable it to be retrieved within the permitted time of 12.5 hours. Therefore, Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies: A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive. 

By way of an explanation, please see the comments below, which refer directly to your request:

A

This is correct.

B

The key word above is “supply”. All goods imported are liable to GST. It is the onward supply to the customer or user which is exempt. For example, a registered medical practice importing pharmaceuticals would have to pay the GST on import but cannot pass that cost on to a patient when dispensed ie GST will not appear on the prescription.  

Please also note that, if a private individual were to import medical supplies or goods, they would also have to pay GST if the value of the goods were in excess of £240. Anything under that amount would not be charged.

C

It is not possible to answer your request because of the range of goods involved ie from plasters through to MRI scanners. These are not described simply as medical supplies on the manifest therefore we cannot use that as a search term. During 2016 alone, we have processed 1,196,000 consignments, so to go through each one identifying those which are medical goods would not be feasible.

Exemption applied:

Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011

Part 2

Access to information held by a scheduled public authority

Article 16      A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1)     A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.

Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.