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has announced it will repay £585 million it saved from the business rates holiday after enjoying a sales surge during . The decision comes after the supermarket giant was criticised for accepting the business rate relief while paying a £315 million dividend to shareholders. Chairman John Allan said the board 'are conscious of our responsibilities to society' and that the company did not need the saving due to remaining open and trading strongly throughout the pandemic.   In October, the retailer revealed it made a pre-tax profit of £551 million in the six months to August 29 - an almost 29 per cent increase compared with the same period in 2019.  And now, Tesco has announced will work with the government to discuss how it can hand back the £585 million it saved from the business rates freeze. 

    (Image: [[|]])   Tesco is to repay £585 million it saved from the coronavirus business rates holiday after seeing its profits surge

The decision comes as supermarkets face growing calls to hand back the savings which were aimed at helping retailers that were unable to open and struggling to make ends meet. Chancellor Rishi Sunak introduced a 12-month freeze on business rates as part of a huge rescue package to stave off economic disaster at the height of the pandemic.  Under the freeze, businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors will not have to pay business rates for the 2020 to 2021 tax year.

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Despite initially enjoying the relief, Tesco revealed it would be paying a significant dividend to its shareholders.  Mr Allan said: 'The board has agreed unanimously that we should repay the rates relief we have received. 'We are financially strong enough to be able to return this to the public, and we are conscious of our responsibilities to society. 'We firmly believe now that this is the right thing to do, and we hope this will enable additional support to those businesses and communities who need it.'

    (Image: [[|]])   Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy said: 'Giving this money back to the public is absolutely the right thing to do by our customers, colleagues and all of our stakeholders'

In October, Tesco revealed it made a pre-tax profit of £551 million in the six months to August 29. Sales during that period were up 0.7% to £28.7 billion, with sales in the UK and настройка гитары онлайн Ireland up more than 8%. Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy said: 'We have invested more than £725 million in supporting our colleagues, putting safety first, more than doubling our online capacity to support the most vulnerable customers in our communities, and hiring thousands of additional colleagues at a time of need. <div class=“art-ins mol-factbox floatRHS news” data-version=“2” id=“mol-f635af60-347a-11eb-a832-a57b75efde2c” website WILL repay £585 million saved from Covid business rates holiday