London — Sainsbury’s, Asda and Aldi will forgo UK property tax relief during the pandemic, as did rivals Tesco and Morrisons, taking the total saved by the government from supermarket groups to £1.74bn.
Britain’s supermarket groups have seen sales soar during the pandemic, but have been criticised by lawmakers and media for paying shareholder dividends while receiving tax relief. However, on Wednesday, market leader Tesco said it would repay the £585m it had claimed because some of the risks of the crisis were now behind it, and returning the money is “the right thing to do”.
Murphy also said the move is unconnected to Tesco’s plan to pay shareholders a £5bn special dividend when the sale of its Asian business is completed.Analysts said the pressure is now on other food retailers to also forgo the relief. Discounters Lidl and B&M declined to comment.
Source: Real Estate Daily Report (realestatedailyreport.net)