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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