English takes election year tax cuts off the table

Thu, 12 May 2016

By Pattrick Smellie May 12 (BusinessDesk) - Finance Minister Bill English has all but ruled out income tax cuts in the government's 2017 election year Budget. In his traditional pre-Budget speech to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, English said the government would prioritise repaying government debt over new spending and tax cuts in the next five years. "With continuing tight fiscal conditions, we don’t currently have an explicit provision for tax reduction in the fiscal forecasts," said English, pointing to the fact that low infla...

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