An email from Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta had yet to be posted on the government’s official website, when Point of Order made its morning check on our ministers and what they are (officially) up to.
She was providing us with an account – a somewhat brief one – of her visit to Korea where the highlights included meetings with Korean President Yoon and Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Henry Puna during her recent visit to Korea.
This left just one new press statement on the website, from Ayesha Verrall in her role as Minister of Research, Science and Innovation.
Verrall was enthusing about the benefits being generated by a tax policy generated to drive research and development.
The Government’s Research and Development Tax Incentive has supported more than $2 billion of New Zealand business innovation – an increase of around $1 billion in less than nine months.
Introduced in the 2019/2020 tax year, the Research and Development Tax Incentive provides a 15 per cent tax credit for businesses performing eligible research and development activities in New Zealand.
The Government has provided more than $312 million tax credits through the scheme.
Business expenditure on research and development makes up about 60 per cent of national spend,
“… so the Research and Development Tax Incentive is a flagship initiative to realise the Government’s goal of raising national research and development expenditure to 2 per cent of gross domestic product.”
And how’s progress?
“We are currently at 1.47 per cent, so there is some way to go. But the increasing uptake of the Research and Development Tax Incentive scheme is a positive sign for the wider research, science and innovation system, which is undergoing its largest reforms in 30 years through the Te Ara Paerangi – Future Pathways programme.
“As more businesses become aware of the Research and Development Tax Incentive and see the benefits it can provide beyond their bottom line, we can expect business research and development in New Zealand to continue to increase in size, scope and quality.”
This didn’t excite the mainstream news media much apparently, because PoO could find no report of the statement in our online search for what had been published.
We did find mention of the Government not ruling out a fertiliser tax as an interim funding measure while the agriculture sector continues to work out how best to price its greenhouse gas emissions.
“The generosity of the taxpayer can’t continue forever,” Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said today.
It comes as time runs low on final decisions to be made on agricultural emissions pricing before Parliament’s last sitting day on August 31.
O’Connor told the Herald it was still the Government’s intention to have an emissions pricing plan ready before Parliament wrapped up before the last sitting day but they were also considering other interim options that would raise funds for research and development.
He confirmed he had discussions with the sector about a fertiliser levy, which they said they did not want.
A levy would have applied per tonne of fertiliser, of which farmers use over 400,000 tonnes of a year.
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
1 comment:
A levy by any other name is a tax.
Who will pay the fertiliser tax ? the consumer of course.
Will the proceeds go into R & D ? probably not. It will go into the general bucket and then later on, the tax credits will stop.
Assuming Labour gets back in, god help us.
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