"Madam Speak­er, as a fis­cal stim­u­lus to the econ­o­my and a fil­lip to the re­tail sec­tor we are pro­vid­ing re­lief to work­ing fam­i­lies by in­creas­ing the per­son­al in­come tax ex­emp­tion lim­it from $84,000 to $90,000 per year.

All in­di­vid­u­als earn­ing $7,500 a month or less will now be ex­empt from in­come tax.

This marks the third time this PNM Ad­min­is­tra­tion has in­creased the Per­son­al Al­lowance and will put ad­di­tion­al dis­pos­able in­come of $1,500 per year in­to the pock­ets of over 300,000 in­di­vid­ual tax­pay­ers.

This bold mea­sure will cost $450 mil­lion per year in in­di­vid­ual in­come tax rev­enue but we firm­ly be­lieve that in this dif­fi­cult COVID-19 pe­ri­od it will stim­u­late the de­mand side of the econ­o­my, eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty, con­sump­tion, sales, and growth by putting more mon­ey in the hands of con­sumers.

We be­lieve that through the mul­ti­pli­er ef­fect the net ef­fect of this in­creased al­lowance on our GDP will be more than $450 mil­lion.

This mea­sure will re­quire amend­ments to the In­come Tax Act Chap 75:01 and will take ef­fect on Jan­u­ary 1, 2023."

- Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert

SEE AL­SO: Bud­get Re­cap: Tax Amnesty be­gins in weeks