TRADERS in Worcester are doubtful that today’s rise in VAT will have much effect on business.

Yesterday was the last official day that consumers could benefit from the temporary VAT rate of 15 per cent before it returned to 17.5 per cent for the start of 2010.

While it has been reported nationally that customers have rushed to buy expensive items like furniture or cars to avoid the tax rise, in the city there has not been such a noticeable change in trade.

At AT Computers, a retailer of Apple computers in Broad Street, Worcester, manager Abdul Safi said he didn’t think the tax rise would make much difference.

He said: “We have seen a slight rush of customers in the last few days taking advantage of the pre-VAT increase. But I don’t think it will have a significant effect.

“In the first few weeks after Christmas, people have bought what they want anyway so the first few weeks of January are generally pretty quiet. It is also such a small percentage rise in VAT that I don’t think it will affect prices too much anyway.”

David Wood, managing director of the Furniture Exhibition Centre, in Worcester’s Cornmarket, said he was absorbing the 2.5 per cent tax rise himself during January, rather than increasing prices.

He said: “This is going to last during our sales in January. We are doing it as an incentive for people to buy larger value items at the current VAT rate as we realise that in these difficult economic times, people don’t want to be paying the extra.

“It is a very bad time of year for this to be happening and it couldn’t be at a more difficult time for the economy. It is at the beginning of the biggest sale period of the year and does make it much more difficult for retailers.”

Larger retailers PC World and Curry’s also announced last night they would be holding their store prices at the 15 per cent VAT rate.

A spokesman for the electronics group said he did not think it would make much of a difference, as people who were prepared to spend £1,000 on an item were unlikely to change their mind because of an extra £20, but the company wanted to help its customers as much as possible.

He said: “We announced that we would be holding our prices until Sunday, January 3, so people had time to decide on the products they wanted to buy and didn’t need to make a hurried decision on Thursday.”

The British Retail Consortium has warned that the process of changing prices, updating computers and altering tax returns will cost the industry up to £100 million.