Sir, - In the forthcoming Government budget, changes to the personal income tax system should increase the high rate of tax by two percentage points, greatly widen the earnings band between the upper and lower rates, and remove more poor people from the tax net.
These measures would have the effects of spreading the wealth in our economy more equitably. Previous budgets have placed more, and still more spending money in the hands of the better off, thereby fuelling inflation, which in turn has eroded the smaller gains of the poorer in society.
Another benefit of such measures would be to signal to domestic and international observers the Government's willingness to take decisive, and perhaps unpopular, measures to deal with any threat to the continued steady growth of the economy. Also, tackling inflation in this way is a means of ensuring that workers retain what faith they may still have in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness. - Yours, etc.,
Mark Duggan, Dublin 6W.