Sunak tables UK’s ‘whatever it takes’ Budget for recovery

LONDON: UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak tabled his first Budget since the pandemic hit last year and promised to continue doing "whatever it takes" to protect jobs for an "investment-led" economic recovery.

The finance minister told parliamentarians in the House of Commons that while it would not be right to raise rates of income tax or value-added tax (VAT) at this stage, there will have to be rise later and that the rate of Corporation Tax will increase to 25 per cent from the current 19 per cent in 2023 for high-profit companies.

He also confirmed an extension to the furlough scheme until September, which would mean continued government support with salaries for workers on forced leave at pandemic-hit businesses.

"This Budget meets the moment with a three-part plan to protect the jobs and livelihoods of the British people," said Sunak.

"First, we will continue doing whatever it takes to support the British people and businesses through this moment of crisis. Second, once we are on the way to recovery, we will need to begin fixing the public finances - and I want to be honest today about our plans to do that. And, third, in today's Budget we begin the work of building our future economy," he said.

The UK's first Indian-origin finance minister reiterated that reforms to the immigration system with a post-Brexit points-based system will help ambitious UK businesses attract the brightest and best international talent and a new Help to Grow scheme will offer up to 130,000 companies across the UK a digital and management boost.

With UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson cheering him along, Sunak told the Commons that his immediate priority continues to be supporting those hardest hit, with extensions to self-employed support, business grants, loans and VAT cuts - bringing the total fiscal support to over 407 billion pounds.

The business rates holiday in England has been extended by an additional three months. Grant funding will be available to businesses through a new 5 billion pounds Restart Grant scheme to help the high street, providing up to 18,000 pounds, bringing the total spent on business grants to 25 billion pounds.