1
2
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25 -
26
222 7
The business
countries, which find that the reduction in tax rate is a good incentive, aut
past experience shows that total tax revenue wil in fact rise instead
wilf of fall as a result of the reduction which may be a stimulant for an
increase in productivity. Some may question whether it is necessary
to further reduce our already low profits rate by 1 per cent.
sector, need a reduction as other countries such as Singapore,/United States of America,
the lenited Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Japan and more recently in have substantially reduced or propose to reduce their tax rates: We should le follow suit, even in a mild manner, to maintain our relative advantage.←
mainly the Chamber of Commerce, he has been asking for such a
Sel
and
It should be be noted that personal tax, property tax interest have also been reduced by per cent. Therefore, the current proposal has been able to benefit a broad spectrum of taxpayers. It would be
pertinent to note that there has been no cut in public expenditure on
social programmes.
In fact, increased allocations are proposed in the Budget. As to personal taxation, the various proposals, which include the reduction of 1 per cent in the standard rate and the change in the progressive rate, in fact give relief to a considerable number of taxpayers, in particular the middle class. Seven hundred thousand taxpayers will benefit to a lesser or greater degree and the tax savings are clearly. shown in the comprehensive tables in Appendix F (3) of the Budget.
alone concessions for salary tax along for 1988-89 amounts to $1.1 billion, which is more than double those granted in 1987-88, and is nearly nine
times those in 1986-87.
Tax
28
the
27 However, there are a number of points which I would like to raise.
Firstly, the increase in additional personal allowance by $2,000 will 29 give rise to an increase of around 6 per cent in the combined basic
per cant and additional personal allowances, which is just over 5.5 rate of inflation in 1987-88. The element of inflation, however, has not been properly
peromal reflected in/adjustment of the basic and other allowances in the past few years. Furthermore, the additional and personal allowance is subject to the unpopular' clawback' provision which means it will be reduced as the taxpayers income increases, until it is totally withdrawn.
30
31
32
33
34.
35
36
the
taxable
when
For
example, it will be the case that a single man earns about $8,000 per