POAAL appears before Productivity Commission hearing

POAAL CEO Ian Kerr appeared before the Productivity Commission’s public hearing in Melbourne last week.The Commission’s retail inquiry was prompted by lobbying in 2010 by high profile retailers concerned about the impact of online purchasing on the Australian retail sector. One of the key targets of the lobbying in 2010 was the GST-free threshold for imports.POAAL has expressed its concerns that if the low value threshold (currently $1000) is reduced, and Australia Post is expected to collect the taxes and fees, then there would be a significant increase in the number of carded parcels being held at LPOs.The Productivity Commission suggested that it would be of value for POAAL to have input to any task force investigating the processing of inbound international parcels.The Commission’s final report will be released in November.