Former prime minister O’Neill suggests tax rate reduction

FORMER Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has suggested to the Government to reduce tax rates to ensure people have more money in their pockets. He also suggests that, because of the country’s current economic status, the Government introduces a supplementary budget to revise its expenditure estimates. He also recommends that the Government must give confidence to potential investors who are the country’s biggest employers. “Government should immediately introduce a supplementary budget which should be able to, when you have revenue shortfalls, revise expenditure estimates,” he said. “It means cutting costs and living within your means.” He said when companies and people were struggling, a review of the tax rates would mean that people could have a bit more money in their pockets to look after their families. “Ultimately when people are spending and companies are investing, Government will recoup (taxes) through GST,” he said. He accused the Government of “stalling” and being indecisive on the resource sector.
“They are investing billions of kina and they are the largest employers of our people,” he said. “Especially when you are developing a new project, more employment for our people. “It is important that they give confidence to these companies and investors. This confidence is not about changing decisions and making decisions on the run. It must be firm and solid commitments to those companies so that they have trust in the Government.  “Allow them to immediately frontload some of these projects that they try to invest in, so they can start bringing money.  “We need foreign direct investment to come in and balance out our currency in the long term.”