Voters expect tax hikes by next government to fund populist promises: survey
Most voters expect the next government to raise both the personal income tax and corporate tax rates to earn enough revenue for financing populist pre-election promises, an opinion survey has found.
The survey was carried out by the National Institute of Development Administration (Nida Poll) in cooperation with the Clean Politics Network from April 20 to 24. The Nida Poll said it had conducted phone interviews of 1,310 sample respondents, who are at least 18 years old, from around the country.
When asked how the political parties would finance their cash handouts or state welfare promises:
- 49.62% of the respondents said the next government would raise the personal income tax and corporate tax rates.
- 27.86% said the money would come from slashing budgets of various ministries.
-25.73% said the promises would be financed with foreign loans.
- 21.15% believed the government would use its treasury reserves and foreign exchange reserves to finance the handouts.
- 18.55% said the next government would crack down on corruption and save money to implement the promises.
- 14.27% said the government would borrow from local banks.
- 3.82% declined to comment.
Asked whether they were aware of the amount of money each handout promise would need:
- 66.72% said they did not know and had never calculated the amounts needed
- 14.81% said they were aware and used to calculate how much would be needed
- 11.75% said they did not know and did not care
- 6.72% said each party had the duty to inform the public of the exact amount required to finance their policies
When asked who they thought should be held responsible if the pre-election populist promises led to a financial crisis or a public debt crisis:
44.35%: The political parties that conceived of and implemented the policies.
41.68%: The politicians who came up with the policies and implemented them
39.47%: The Voters
14.43%: The Election Commission for failing to prevent the use of populist promises to win the election
9.62%: Permanent officials who serve politicians by implementing the policies.
6.34%: Academics for failing to warn the public of the dangers of populist policies
6.26%: Such a crisis would never happen
1.60%: No comment.
