5 January 2001, 09:57 UK's Brown rules out tax cuts for all
LONDON (AFX) - Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown has ruled
out across the board tax cuts in his pre-election budget and promised a
five-year economic blueprint to chart the course of Labour's second
term.
In an interview with The Times he dismissed speculation that he
intends to produce a tax-cutting bonanza in March in time for the
expected May 3 general election, all but killing off the prospect of a
cut in the basic rate of income tax.
The Chancellor said, however, that he was planning far higher than
expected targeted tax reductions directed at a list of national
priorities. They include allowing pensioners to shelter more of their
savings and special payments to families with small children beyond the
10 stg a week children's tax credit to be introduced in April. Other
priorities are further assistance for enterprises and a redrafted New
Deal to get more people into work.
Brown also said that he was closely monitoring the differential
between the price of fuel for motorists and the crude price, reminding
oil companies that he had not ruled out changes to their tax status.
In the interview he virtually confirmed that the election was weeks
away when he said his Budget would contain a five-year economic
manifesto.
The newspaper said Brown took the unusual step of lifting the veil
on the Budget in order to stop the party and the public running away
with the idea that basic rate tax cuts were on the way. It said he is
also anxious to counter Conservative Party criticism that he is a
tax-raising Chancellor, and his words suggested that a substantial part
of his surplus, which estimates put at anything from 10 to 15 bln stg,
will be used to reduce the burden of taxation.
He voiced support for the action by Alan Greenspan, chairman of the
Federal Reserve, in cutting U.S. interest rates in the face of growing
fears of a recession.
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