Luthori

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The Luthorian Guardian | KOZOMPOL (Kundrati)

Liberal-led Treasury Department Unveils New Budget and Economic Priorities.

January 5567

Fort William - Amids the recent appointment of the new Cabinet, Mrs. Pryce’s Government, composed of both the National Labour Party and the Liberal Party in a governing coalition, works in Bills and other aspect of governance have already started, with the Prime Minister and the Treasury Department working together to unveil a government budget; yet it should be noted that the current Chancellor of the Exchequer, the second most powerful person in the Cabinet, is Liberal Deputy Leader of the Senate, Ileas Ford, who has been appointed to the position in replacement of Fr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rebecca Landmorth, as per the coalition agreement which said that the Liberals were going to hold the Treasury Department. Mr. Ford, directly after his appointment, stated that the state finances were “doing fine”, as of now and that the Liberal Party, holding the Office of Chancellor would “continue the long established policy of balanced budget, while allocating funds to needed departments”, as well as establishing a new focus to the Treasury Department’s policy. Mr. Ford, while arriving at the Treasury Department with a healthy budget at hand and a large portfolio at his disposal (adding the Department of the Economy), effectively making him the second-most powerful man in the Cabinet, something that has only been increased with the addition of the Department of the Economy within the Department of Finance, also came to Crown Street with a sense of ‘revenujation’ of his Department. As stated earlier, as part of the coalition agreements, Mr. Ford was put in charge of the Department of the Treasury and the Department of the Economy, making him the senior cabinet minister in regards to economic policy, finances and other economic subjects.

Mr. Ford during his first press conference at 11 Crown Street explored the possibility of an increased education, healthcare budgets to better accommodate the Government’s needs of funds in these areas, in that subject, he also pointed out that the Government, under his leadership would also explore possibilities of investments into both of these sectors, alongside the already modernising defence sector. These allocated funds, according to the Finance Secretary, would come as a “great helper” in order to “boost the administrations’ efforts” towards the consolidation, reform of both of these services. He offered more precisions on his economic and financial program as Chancellor of the Exchequer during his first address in the role before the Luthorian Parliament (Imperial Diet). Mr. Ford stated in the Imperial Diet, the following.

“This Government came with the promise of fixing the former government’s actions, or lack of. Therefore, the Prime Minister entrusted me with the daily operations and policy-managing of both the Luthorian Treasury and the Economy Department. [...] To my Right Honourable Colleagues in Parliament, the Budget for this Year, will consist of increased revenues for the Luthorian State, revenues which would come from an increased taxation efforts upon the most wealthy Luthorians and other poorer ones. These taxation efforts will be drawn from increased taxation for luxury goods, with the percentage taken over by taxes being increased from 3 to 5 percent during the next 5 years. [...]

These increased taxes would be used to continue the financing of currently undergoing programs, like the ones in the military, and for the financement of other programs which would be enacted by Acts of Parliament put forward by this Government. This would be accompanied by, after the passages of the Acts, further investments into the education and healthcare sector as a long and steady reform course that would be enacted and begin to be worked on during this term and administration. We also look forward to the enactment of measures destined to stabilise our economic growth at about 1.2 % per year. Although, the current analysis puts our economy at a growth rate of 0.4 % per year, having slightly increased from last years’ 0.2 %. [...]

The Government and the Treasury Department came to the conclusion that the current economic policy of government economic intervention cannot continue as such. Let the invisible hand of the free market guide our nation like it has always done. Yet, here. Luthori would continue to have the state-owned companies of the Imperial Corporations and while plans to privatise some services could be considered, this isn’t the priority of the Government to privatise the full economy, but merely ‘open ways for the administration’ in terms of economic liberalism. As such, while measures would be implement to continue receiving the same or a similar revenue from tax income, the Government, under this Budget, will be decreasing the national corporation tax from 17.25 % of all the monthly income from companies being subjected to taxation from the Government to 13.5 %, and the Government will be conducting changes to dividend tax, which would be reduced from 20 % to 16.45 %. While this decrease is certainly going to negatively affect our tax revenue, we are confident that the increase of taxes upon higher income receivers will be able to overcome this issue when the proposed Budget is implemented.”

Many MPs, especially from the National Labour Party’s left-wing announced their support for the current proposed Budget, which may come as a surprise considering the Budget’s obvious liberal orientation, but not really so when we consider that while the Chancellor of the Exchequer expressed interest in further liberalising the Luthorian economy, bringing her out of the stagnation period that plagued the nation during an entire decade, he also reassured the left-wing of the Labour Party by stating that “while the economy will be further liberalised, the Government will implement strict workers’ protection laws to represent their interests fairly and defend them in the same regard.” Mr. Ford, ruled out calls from further Liberal members to do away with the Imperial Corporation and switch to a full free-market economy without any form of state interference. Mr. Ford stated in these regards.

“It shouldn’t be ruled out that, with the current state of our Corporations, privatisation may be a good idea to implement. But, the State’s main mission is to provide free or, at the very least, very cheap services to its populations. So, this Government will not be implementing any form of privatisation of the currently existing Imperial Corporations. We’ll only kickstart a process of privatisation of the sectors in which these companies are operating into, bringing some needed competition in these fields. Yet, it isn’t the goal or purpose of any of the Corporations to begin competing for profit with other companies, which this government will be keen to avoid, even with the process of privatisation being kickstarted. All and all, the Government isn’t interested in the pursuit of a free-market economy, only contemplating changes to be made to the Luthorian capitalist model to bring more growth to our economy."

The proposed Budget announced modifications of funding allocations for certain ministries, the Department of Health will receive an increase of 3.75% in their yearly budget, the Department of Education will receive an increase of 3% in their own yearly budget. To continue with the policy of “balanced budget”, as stated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Fort William has announced that the Department of Home Affairs will see its budget being cut by 2.5%, already fueling criticism from the right and Official Opposition. Alongside the proposed increase in taxation for individuals, the Government expects to remain in a status of budget surplus, which would then allow for government-led investment in some critical sectors of the economy, booming sectors or developing sectors within that said economy. When the news of the Budget proposal reached the Fort William Stock Exchange, most investors and private investors were quite “pleased” with the Government’s decisions to decrease their taxes. FWSE Governor, Charles Walker stated that “the proposed government policy will certainly bring down some pressure for corporations, allowing them to have a far more active hand in the economic progress that the Government seeks to implement with these policies.”. The Fort William Stock Exchange, during this day, increased its overall value by over 70 points during this day, with other companies’ stocks having seen their price skyrocket after the announcements from the Government. The only companies which did not benefit from this State of Affairs were the luxury companies, whose progress was stalled by the Government’s announcement of the increase of the tax on luxurious goods.

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