Consumers face paying more at the till than is marked on labels throughout most of January after the government said it would consider relaxing the rules on goods labelling when value-added tax returns to 17.5 per cent in the new year.

Retailers at present have a grace period of two weeks during which they do not have to change the labels on their goods, even if they have increased in price after VAT returns from 15 to 17.5 per cent.