Tax measures dominate UK news week

Presented in Parliament by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, as a savior against rising living costs and hyperinflation, the so-called Spring Declaration did not meet the expectations of most Britons, especially the poorest.

The British Conservative Party official, seen by many as a future candidate for prime minister, announced, for example, that over the next 12 months, five pence will be reduced for every liter of gasoline or diesel sold at gas stations in the country.

It also expanded the threshold for Social Security exemptions, so that only those earning more than 12,570 pounds ($16,500) would have to pay tax to the Treasury, and lowered the basic income rate. A one-pence tax on every pound — from 20 pence to 19 pence — in 2024.

According to Sunak, the measure will benefit 30 million British workers with a per capita savings rate of 330 pounds (more than $400) a year.

And although MPs welcomed the extension of the Social Security threshold, the opposition considered that the Conservative government had not done enough to help those most vulnerable to the crisis, especially after the economic impact of the Covid-19 epidemic.

Rep. Rachel Reeves, who serves as deputy treasurer in the so-called shadow (opposition) government, said these measures would only increase the cost of living.

For Reeves, like the rest of his followers, the solution to limit the increase in the cost of living is to introduce a single tax on the profits earned by oil companies operating in the North Sea. In this way, he said, three billion Egyptian pounds ($4 billion) would be raised to help low-income families.

The Resolution Foundation, a think tank dedicated to analyzing the living conditions of the population, for its part, warned that despite the announced measures, 300,000 Britons, including 500,000 children, could fall into extreme poverty.

The bottom line here is that Rishi Sunak has prioritized rebuilding his credentials as a tax reducer over helping those who would be hit hardest by the rising cost of living, the foundation’s CEO, Torsten Bell, said.

gcm/nm