Two of the multiple optical chains have declined to pass on VAT decreases to customers, claiming that the amount of administration required to do so would outweigh any benefits.
A Dollond & Aitchison spokesperson told Optician this week: 'As a partially exempt business, the changes only affect a certain proportion of the prices customers pay and do not affect our professional services fees which are an element of virtually all our sales.'
Explaining how the chain would be using the additional revenue, it said: 'Instead of putting a large amount of administrative effort into a change which would have a small impact on the price a customer actually pays, we intend to further increase our efforts to constantly improve the value we offer our customers both via competitive pricing and strong promotional offers.'
Specsavers pointed out that VAT is not levied on professional fees, which means that the net effect of the recent reduction translates into much less than a 1 per cent reduction in the retail price.
A company spokesperson told Optician: 'Specsavers has always been committed to offering excellent value for money rather than short-term "gimmicks"The cost and complexity involved in changing all our prices, in many cases by only a few pence, would be significant. It would mean changing all the price stickers, posters, point of sale material and our computer systems, which would cancel out the benefit of the reduction.'
However, Boots Opticians told Optician that the company had decided to pass on the reduction to patients.
David Cartwright, the chain's director of professional service, revealed: 'We wanted to make sure there was no reason for them to put off an eye examination or a change in spectacles.
'It won't encourage people to come in and purchase, but we felt not passing on the reductions would have the potential to put people off coming in for an eye test or replacing glasses.'
'If people think VAT is being reduced, I won't make a significant purchase until I know that's gone through even if it's only 2.5 per cent and on spectacles it's reduced VAT so it's only 0.8 per cent or only 80p in a pound,' he elaborated.