ID :
209467
Mon, 09/26/2011 - 14:00
Auther :

Tax proposals must toe budget line

SYDNEY (AAP) - 26 Sept. - The federal government has reiterated that proposals for next week's tax forum need to be consistent with its budget strategy.
Ahead of the forum due to be held on October 4 and 5 in Canberra, Finance Minister Penny Wong has released a new report - Tax Forum: The Fiscal Context - that outlines the government's budget strategy in the short, medium and long term.
"That of course doesn't just mean the return to surplus and the fiscal rules the government has laid out," Senator Wong told reporters in Canberra on Monday.
"It also means understanding the longer term pressures, pressures in health, pressures in social security, pressures that will have to be dealt with by governments of all political persuasions in the decades ahead."
The report says a softer economy stemming from the impact of natural disasters and the strong dollar, as well as the legacy effects of the global financial crisis and heightened risks to the international growth outlook, are making for a challenging budget environment.
"We have made it very clear, we have a plan to return the budget to surplus in 12/13 and that is what we are working towards," she said.
"Markets do demand clear fiscal strategies, clear and credible fiscal strategies from governments."
She said Australia does face current turbulence in the global economy from a position of significant strength with strong public finances, low debt, low unemployment and a strong pipeline of investment, as well as being situated in the growing region of the world.
She said meeting future pressures to the budget does not mean more tax.
"I think the issue here is to make sure that we clearly understand that we have both a short and medium term fiscal strategy, but we also need to look to long term fiscal pressures and that tax reform does have to occur within the context of these fiscal pressures," she said.
She said the government has already implemented more than 30 recommendations from the Henry Tax Review.
"But ... tax reform is never finished, it is something you have to keep continuing and it is very important when one does that the fiscal context if very clear."


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