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Monday, 28 January 2008 |
The Federation of Small Businesses Scotland has written to Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth John Swinney to outline its recommendations for an accelerated Small Business Bonus.
In particular, FSB Scotland has called for the Finance Secretary to
‘front-load’ the scheme by moving directly to year two from this
April.
Policy convener Andy Willox said: "Because of the
funding constraints, such as the decision taken by Parliament to spend
over half a billion pounds on the Edinburgh tram scheme, there is no
way the Small Business Bonus will be introduced in full from April 2008
as some late converts have called for.
"The priority for us
is to reduce the timescale from three to two years and to ensure that
the smallest businesses benefit the most - a move we believe would be
popular inside the Scottish Parliament and across Scotland’s small
business community."
FSB Scotland has also recommended the
Scottish Government commission an independent economic impact
assessment to measure the impact the policy has on growing the economy.
"The
only half-criticism of the policy is that there is little information
about what effect this will have on growing the Scottish economy. Every
business person I have spoken to have said they will reinvest any
saving back into the business, which will give Scotland’s small
businesses a competitive advantage and help them to deal with growing
uncertainty in the global economy," Willox said.
"We know this
will contribute to economic growth, but it would be useful to get the
facts and figures about what the scheme is doing to stimulate faster
economic growth, which is why we have recommended that the Finance
Secretary commission an economic impact assessment to provide facts and
figures which demonstrate exactly how successful this policy has
been."
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