According to an article published on the Isle of Man Today website, the Island’s chief minister, Tony Brown says the ongoing negotiations are creating uncertainty for the Island and should be resolved as soon as possible.
Brown reportedly declined to give a figure on how much the island could lose in any revision of the VAT revenue sharing arrangements – but is said to have already admitted that the cut could be ‘substantial’.
The cut would come on top of the 25% cut in the IoM government’s revenue when the UK last reduced the island’s VAT income in October 2009.
According to the newspaper, Brown said he had had an informal discussion with Liberal Democrat leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg at a British-Irish Council summit in London on Monday.
Following this discussion he told the Manx Independent: “There are figures that are being discussed. The UK know what they are looking for. They have put forward a figure that they believe is the level we should get.”
He said that the Manx government’s stance was to “get the best sharing arrangement we can” and added: “For our part we want any conclusions to these discussions to take place the sooner the better really to take away the uncertainty.
“We have emphasised we find this continuing situation to be quite difficult because it creates uncertainty in relation to our finances.
“We acknowledge the UK is going through difficult circumstances and hopefully with an agreement, we can let things settle down and we can move on.”
