FILE PHOTO: Newly appointed Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak leaves Downing Street in London, Britain February 13, 2020. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo
March 8, 2020
LONDON (Reuters) – British finance minister Rishi Sunak said he was looking at possible changes the country’s budget rules which would give him more room to increase spending, the Sunday Telegraph said.
The newspaper said Sunak, in an interview with the newspaper, declined to confirm he would stick with fiscal rules set by his predecessor Sajid Javid.
Sunak is due to deliver Britain’s first post-Brexit budget on Wednesday and has been expected to relax a limit on day-to-day spending which was set by Javid before he resigned last month after a row with Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s over the appointment of advisors.
Sunak said he was studying “with interest” proposals to reclassify some government spending as investment which would give him more room for manoeuvre with public spending, the Telegraph said.
He also said in the interview that his budget statement would include plans to give companies more time to pay tax if staff were unable to work or consumers reined in spending because of the spread of coronavirus.
Sunak told the newspaper that he wanted “lower rates of tax” during his time in office.
He said he was looking at objections to transaction taxes such as Britain’s stamp duty which is applied to the purchase of properties, suggesting it could be changed in a future budget.
(Writing by William Schomberg, Editing by Kylie MacLellan)
