A petition calling on the Premier not to raise duty on personal imports has grown to more than 2,500 signatures.Meanwhile, Mailboxes Unlimited president Steve Thomson has stepped up his campaign against a duty hike, taking out a series of advertisements in The Royal Gazette this week, showing how consumers may be affected if duty goes up.His ad noted that duty on $500 worth of clothing shipped in would go from $32.50 to $175 if the rate was raised from the current 6.5 percent to a possible 35 percent. Duty on shoes is currently 10 percent, camera equipment 8.5 percent, vitamins/supplements 15 percent, computer/electronic goods, 22.25 percent.Therefore, he said, a rise in duty on personal imports to 35 percent would result in as much as a 500 percent hike for some goods shipped in by courier.Mr Thomson’s campaign and the online petition were started by concerned resident Gwendolyn Ward after Government said it was looking at whether to make changes to duty rates, which vary across methods of import. At the airport the rate is now 35 percent however via other methods of import, the rates vary from five percent to 33.5 percent.“Bermudians were furious when the duty at the airport went to 35 percent,” Mr Thomson said yesterday.“They didn’t know what was happening ahead of time. It is our intention to make sure that every citizen in Bermuda knows ahead of time how painful and damaging this huge tax increase will be to them, to us all.“And yes, absolutely, we intend to promote awareness much more in the lead up to the Budget through the media.“We are calling on the Premier and the Finance Minister to make it clear that she does not intend to raise duty on personal import items.“As of today, there’s over 2,500 signatures on a petition calling on the Premier not to raise the duty on personal imports, the petition has only been going for six days.“The feedback is if there’s 100 people commenting online or in person, 99 out of the 100 are angry and dead set against it. There’s 700 comments on the petition, one of them is ‘why is this Government always hitting the little person’. It’s just ridiculous.”He added: “I am made to understand that all other divisions of the Chamber besides the retail division do not support this tax increase.“Additionally, I also understand that recently there was another emergency meeting held with the retail division because many other retailers did not agree with the statement that was made before where retailers were calling for 25 percent, not 35 percent. I now understand that the retailers have voted against 25 percent as well, in favour of a lower percentage, I don’t know what the number is.“Internet shopping throughout the world is growing, that’s a simple fact.“Duty and tariffs throughout the world are being torn down and yet Bermuda is discussing installing an excessive protectionist tax that’ll hurt the people of Bermuda and ultimately will be incredibly inflationary. In summary, people will have less money in their pocket and have less choice- is that what we want for our country?“What we’re doing is calling on the Government to say if they’ve had a rethink to tell the people.“I wrote to the Premier in October, she responded and acknowledged receipt of my letter. I haven’t seen or heard anything else since then.“I wrote to her personally as business owner, and as a Bermudian with major concerns. Since then the number of signatories on the petition started by another concerned Bermudian is over 2,500.“You can find it at www.change.org, then search Bermuda and it’s the petition to the Premier Paula Cox.”Clothes are currently 6.5 percent, so 35 percent would be in excess of a 500 percent increase, he noted.“The Government must remember the majority of items being imported are items that are not available in Bermuda either by size or colour or item itself,” he said.“We have a very limited selection due to our population size.” He said Bermudians may wind up so angry they may refuse to shop locally.(See full add on page 2 of The Royal Gazette)