Vexed by VAT

Napoleon called England a nation of shopkeepers, but he should have given that distinction to Belgium. The country counts one store for every 49 residents, the highest ratio in Europe; the government even has a Ministry of Middle Class Affairs, which is supposed to protect the interests of small shopkeepers. Lately, at least, the ministry has not been notably successful. Shopkeepers have been complaining loudly and long about rising taxes and rising competition from cut-rate chain stores. Last week they put their complaints into action and went on strike for two days, practically shutting down the country.

What finally touched off the re tailers' revolt was Belgium's value-added tax (VAT). Nixon Administration officials have talked of calling for the same sort of national sales tax in the U.S., and most other European countries already have one. But the VAT that Belgium introduced last year is the most complicated of all: it has four different rates, from 6% on food to 25% on liquor. Retailers angrily protest that the resulting paperwork is intolerable. Says Mrs. Maria Hendrickx, half of a husband and wife vegetable-selling team in Brussels: "My husband can buy vegetables in the market, but he can't fill in all those damned forms. He isn't clever enough." Another though unvoiced complaint of many shopkeepers: in Belgium, as in some other European nations, tax evasion is a national sport, and the VAT is difficult, if not impossible to escape.

Last Monday and Tuesday, more than 700,000 retailers, tradesmen and sympathizers struck in protest; the shopkeepers pulled down their blinds, turned off their lights and shut up shop. Most simply stayed home, but some marched and threw stones, tomatoes and rotten eggs at the windows of chain stores. Gas stations stopped pumping; highways and streets filled with cars that were abandoned after they ran out of fuel. Restaurants, movie theaters, newsstands all closed. Even doctors closed their offices in sympathy. Bars shut and prostitutes disappeared from the streets.

There is little chance that the government will repeal the hated VAT or grant another of the strikers' demands --government restraints on the expansion of chain stores. What the store owners gained is the memory of two glorious days in which they proved that they too can revolt. But in the long run, many of Belgium's shopkeepers, like those of other nations, will probably be replaced by larger retailers.

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