Grey Power understandably afraid of GST hike
Grey Power is understandably alarmed at the prospect of the Government lifting the level of GST by 2.5 percent or even higher, say Labour Finance spokesperson David Cunliffe and Revenue spokesperson Stuart Nash.
Grey Power President Les Howard, reacting to the first recommendation emerging from Finance Minister Bill English’s tax working group, said today that any increase in GST will be ‘more bad news for people on superannuation struggling to keep themselves properly warm’.
“What Les Howard is saying mirrors what I said earlier this week,” David Cunliffe said today. “The reality is that many New Zealanders find it difficult to afford to pay for basic needs like heating their homes. A broad brush measure like raising the level of GST cannot be seen in isolation. It has to be seen in the context where many New Zealanders are already finding it hard to make ends meet.”
Stuart Nash said Les Howard points out that superannuitants will struggle to cope with a 2.5% increase. “But what we may be facing under this recommendation is actually a 7.5% increase.
“It’s enough to send a shiver up the spine of anyone like superannuitants on a low fixed income. People on fixed incomes are less able to cope with such wholesale increases, and there is absolutely no guarantee National will adjust benefits sufficiently to compensate.”
David Cunliffe and Stuart Nash said many New Zealanders will agree with Les Howard. “This recommendation has serious implications for low-income and fixed-income New Zealanders. Labour favours a progressive tax system, and acknowledges that a review of the current tax system is timely, but we don’t favour proposals that create further inequity in our society.”
