NI Conservatives’ chairman, Irwin Armstrong, has criticised the finance minister, Sammy Wilson, for introducing a “business unfriendly tax on retailers” and “failing to understand the basics of growing the economy.”
“It is a good idea to provide rates relief for small and medium sized businesses, but to fund it by taxing large retailers is completely counterproductive”, Irwin explained. “With this levy Sammy Wilson is sending out a message loud and clear to the biggest and most successful chains: Northern Ireland is not open for business, we do not want you to come here and create jobs.”
“The Finance Minister consistently fails to grasp the basics of growing the economy. He remains wedded to pumping ever greater quantities of money into a bloated civil service and pours cold water on any ideas to rebalance the economy or create jobs for the unemployed.”
“He has rubbished the notion of enterprise zones and repeatedly hampered efforts to devolve powers to vary Corporation Tax in Northern Ireland. Most recently he rejected outright the opportunity to use any savings achieved by implementing regional public sector pay to create employment here.”
“This retail tax is yet another example of Mr Wilson’s growth hampering policies. The Finance Minister simply doesn’t understand what it takes to get Northern Ireland competing for jobs and investment in the modern world economy.”