Luxon and finance spokesperson Nicola Willis announced yesterday their party’s promise of “no new taxes” would be upheld in any coalition agreement – which meant scrapping both the bed tax and bank tax.
Luxon’s U-turn on a bank tax and bed tax came at his official Botany electorate campaign launch, where the party pledged it would allow no new taxes if re-elected.
Two weeks ago the Prime Minister had raised the possibility of an accommodation levy, which had been previously discussed with Auckland Council, while noting Willis had also spoken about possible changes to bank tax settings.
But he said yesterday that a bed tax would hurt “everyday Kiwis who are just going away for a weekend in Auckland or Queenstown”, while Willis said the party had been unable to find a way to raise taxes on banks without increasing costs to Kiwis.
Luxon also said it was highly unlikely National would enforce next year’s legislated fuel excise tax increase.
The bed tax backdown has disappointed mayors in tourism hotspots, who had previously pushed for a nationwide accommodation levy to help fund public infrastructure in key tourist destinations.
The levy was backed by mayors from Auckland, Rotorua, Ruapehu, Wellington, Marlborough, Christchurch, Timaru and Queenstown, among others.
Meanwhile Nicola Willis is refusing to rule out increases to ACC levies if the party returns to Government after the election.
Speaking to Herald NOW’s Ryan Bridge Today, Willis said she would not rule out such an increase but National strived to keep the levy low, pointing out there was a formula to assess the increase in the levy.
The party has pledged to add no new taxes if re-elected, but Willis said they had been “very open” that the petrol levy would be increased in future.
Congestion charges were also not ruled out but would be up to councils.
Labour finance spokeswoman Barbara Edmonds said her party would keep the ACC levy cap if the books were still manageable.
Edmonds told Ryan Bridge TODAY that Labour would also not go ahead with the 12c petrol price increase planned by the Government for January next year.