Asda is the latest supermarket to warn of possible price rises, saying tax changes revealed in the Budget will lead to £100 million in extra costs.

Several supermarkets blame the rise in employers’ social security contributions – announced last week by Chancellor Rachel Reeves – for an expected rise in costs from April.

This rise in taxes on employers is “a heavy burden” to bear, according to Asda chairman Lord Stuart Rose.

“We will do everything we can to mitigate this cost,” he added this afternoon.

“But of course you can’t deny that this will probably be inflationary to some extent.”

Sainsbury’s boss Simon Roberts estimates their costs could rise by £140m.

His comments echoed those of M.S.where chief executive Stuart Machin said the company “didn’t really see the double whammy coming”.

While he said M&S was “certainly not considering raising prices”, he admitted price rises could not be completely ruled out.

M&S revealed its annual tax bill would rise to around £520m, with a further £60m coming from the National Insurance increase and a further £60m coming from the National Living Wage rise, although the latter is already taken into account in its budget.

Sky News previously reported that the UK’s four biggest supermarket chains – Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons – could collectively face an extra £200 million in national insurance contributions, resulting from an increase in two percentage points of employers’ NICs provided for in the budget.

TESCOwith around 300,000 employees, could face an additional £75m in NICs alone.

Cross-sector impact

Other large companies also expect higher expenses due to budget changes.

JD Wetherspoonwhich operates more than 1,000 pubs in the UK, expects extra costs of £60m next year.

Other retailers, including Primark Owner Associated British Foods and supermarket chain Co-op also reported significant additional costs this week, amounting to “tens of millions”.

The restaurant group, owner Wagamama and Mexican themed channel Barburritosaid this week its profits are expected to fall by a quarter, with changes to national insurance adding almost £9 million in extra costs and the minimum wage increase contributing £8 million.

In the meantime, BT announced yesterday that the Budget would have a £100 million impact on its business, mainly due to changes to national insurance.

“We intend to offset all of this using the multiple levers we always use when faced with such surprises… of course we will look at the pricing of products and services,” said chief executive Alison Kirkby.