21 March 2014 | Comments
Financial Secretary Colin Owen this afternoon delivered the Budget Speech for St Helena, 2014/15 (photo attached). The theme of this year’s Budget was the Health of the Nation and Making a Difference.
The budget covered a wide range of health and environmental issues and saw the introduction of Excise and Liquor Duty and a number of changes to the current tax regime.
Highlights from the speech included:
- Total expenditure for 2014/15 of just over £29 million
- Increased funding for priority areas, including an additional £692k for the Health Service
- £8.5m to be spent on Capital Infrastructure Projects in 2014/15
- Planned introduction of Child Benefit allowance from 1 April 2015
- Continued equalisation of Fuel Tariffs, with duty on diesel to increase by 5p
- Tobacco and Spirits Duties increased by 5%
- Introduction of Liquor Duty at £3.50 per litre
- New £1 per litre Duty for alcohol 3% or below
- Changes to Customs Duty on Vehicles, based on CO2 Emissions
- Introduction of Excise Duty on Styrofoam boxes for takeaways
- Introduction of Excise Duty on plastic shopping bags
- 75p per litre Excise Duty on High Sugar Carbonated Drinks
Colin Owen commented:
‘The introduction of a new tax on high sugar drinks and higher than inflation increases on tobacco form part of a raft of measures which demonstrate that SHG takes the health of St Helena seriously.’
The full Budget Speech is available on the SHG website at: https://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/finace/
SHG
21 March 2014
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