Retroactive tax relief would be inequitable - Shaw

Quizzed last night on whether he had broken his promise by not awarding income tax relief retroactively to April 1, Finance and Public Service Minister Audley Shaw said that such a move would have led to an inequitable system.

"The retroactive promise would only have been to those that we initially had promised under the $1.5 million [plan]," Shaw said.

"Once you get back into that, then we run into problems with the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and other people who would once again say that is an inequitable system."

Shaw argued that the Government decided to "abandon the inequitable system of only selecting one category of people to get the benefit and decided to give the entire workforce that is on the PAYE (pay-as-you-earn)".

Yesterday, Shaw opened the Budget Debate at Gordon House where he announced a $13.7-billion tax package to fund the election promise, which in its first phase will cost the Government $12.5 billion in revenue.