These businesses that are complaining about the VAT increase are the same ones who were saying at the time it was cut that they couldn’t afford to reduce their prices. They clearly don’t understand the concept of vat. It’s not your money, it’s a tax you collect from customers and pass it on to the Collector General. It wasn’t their money to keep, they effectively just increased their price back then by keep the difference. Vat is an in and out transaction, you collect it from customers and you pass it on to CG. Your business is not viable if you cannot operate and make a required profit at a price your customers are willing to pay. Don’t be giving away free cakes and then expecting vat to make up the gap in your finances.