The Treasury’s survey into the spending habits of the Island’s residents is now well underway and the public response has pleased Government statisticians tasked with the responsibility of obtaining sufficient and accurate data.
The survey is being undertaken as part of the Isle of Man/UK exercise considering future VAT and excise duty revenue sharing.
The survey will require the involvement of some 1,000 households. Households are selected at random and initially receive a letter advising them that they have been selected and requesting their co-operation. Co-operation involves households answering a number of questions on irregular spending and big items of expenditure and then maintaining a diary of their everyday expenditures for a period of two weeks. Households taking part in the survey receive a ?15 gift for each adult involved.
“Despite some inclement weather, the exercise has been going quite satisfactorily to date” said Government Economic Advisor Steve Carse.
“As we expected, our interviewers have encountered a certain degree of reluctance on the doorstep, although in many instances this has been based on a mistaken belief that the information is to be used for general Government purposes.
“So I would like to spell out to everyone that this exercise is being undertaken with the strictest confidentiality and purely for the purpose of helping determine our fair share of customs revenues. The information collected remains solely within the offices of the Economic Affairs Division of the Treasury. It goes no further. Once the information is inputted the link between it and the household supplying it is broken. The results that we will derive from the information will be aggregated such as to make identification of any single or indeed small group of households, impossible.”
The exercise, begun in December last year, will run for 12 months, with results likely to take a further 6 months to finalise.
Whilst this particular survey primarily concerns only household spending, to complete the exercise the Division will also be seeking the involvement later in the year of the business community on information with respect to their spending and revenues.
