Vol. 423 No. 1
119 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Finance if, in respect of the recommendations of the Culliton Committee he will outline, for each recommendation concerning his Department, the action, if any, which he has already taken or proposes to take; the changes involved and the cost of such action; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
the Culliton report recommendations which primarily concern my Department relate to taxation. Their essential thrust is that, subject to the overriding need to continue to pursue sound budgetary policy, the tax base should be extended both within the income tax area and outside it, and marginal income tax rates lowered. This thrust endorses the recommendations of several earlier reports, notably that of the Commission on Taxation.
As the Deputy will be aware, Government taxation policy in recent years was already along these lines, and much progress has been made in implementing it in conjunction with the Programme for National Recovery and the Programme for Economic and Social Progress. The Review of the Programme for Government, concluded in October 1991, promised a radical overhaul of the entire tax code, involving a systematic curtailment of tax exemptions, shelters, allowances and concessionary tax rates on a phased basis, in order to reduce marginal income tax rates. Consistent with that, the Finance Act, 1992 curtailed a number of tax reliefs and exemptions in order to help fund the major package of income tax reliefs I announced in the 1992 budget. This package cost an estimated £280 million in a full year and involved a substantial extension of the standard rate-band as well as reduction of the top tax rate to 48 per cent and of the standard rate to 27 per cent. Further measures in the area of taxation are of course matters for consideration in the context of the 1993 budget.
