Fiscal Churning

Low-income households will soon start to get the first of the money pledged by Rishi Sunak in an effort for the current government to look good against the crisis that they themselves caused. They will get £326 next month as part of a massive £21bn support package to help with soaring bills, which was announced last month. Meanwhile, petrol and diesel at the pump provides them with ever increasing amounts of revenue, with the treasury taking roughly 49% of money spent to fill vehicles being tax.

Domestic gas and electricity, which has been the forefront of the rise in the cost of living, also sees 30% of the total go to the government – 5% in VAT and 25% in “green subsidies”. Once again, the government giving with one hand and taking away with the other.

This, of course, leads to the obvious question. How much has it cost for the government to process all this money – both incoming and outgoing? VAT in particular is an extremely inefficient way of raising taxes, with all the manpower involved in checking business VAT returns.

Another £324 will hit accounts in the autumn, according to the Department for Work and Pensions. I’m sure there is a reason for the odd amounts, but I can’t think of it?

The profligate nature of Johnson’s administration means that money they should be giving back to taxpayers is, in fact, borrowed, and as such will add to the inflation is it supposed to help with. It’s economic madness, dressed up as benevolence. For anyone with any understanding of economic, it’s stomach churning.

Martin Day – Party Secretary