Business leaders have strongly criticised the Isle of Man Government’s Budget.

The Chamber of Commerce described the Isle of Man Budget as a ‘placeholder’.

Dr Alex Allinson, the Treasury Minister, announced the Budget measures in Tynwald last week.

All but one member back it.

To see the Budget at a glance, which includes links to eight further stories about the budget, click here.

The Chamber of Commerce this morning released a statement about its views.

It included some strong criticism and says that members say they would like to see government doing more to address the ‘fundamental issues’ that are affecting businesses and limiting economic growth.

The organisation – which has members who represent about 75% of those employed in the island’s private sector – has several points of concern.

It says that, while the private sector is feeling the pressure with multiple cost challenges, including rises in the minimum and living wages, the Budget includes £40million being for government pay increases and has only challenged departments to find just 1.5% in non-pay.

A spokesman said ‘It appears government is ignoring the extreme cost pressures being faced by the private sector and is using taxpayer funds and reserves to “carry on as normal”, rather than facing the reality of the challenges to make government more efficient.’

It goes on to say that the Chamber’s calls for lowering freight charges to help local businesses have been ignored and the Steam Packet is to pay a £1million dividend to government.

‘This is nothing but another tax on all businesses that bring goods to the island to sell, especially food retailers, and are then forced to pass the costs onto the public,’ the Chamber of Commerce says.

The moves to a more progressive income taxation structure were welcome, it says.

However this only appears to catch around 1,500 workers, 200 of whom are in the public sector.

The Chamber says it is also concerned about the lack of narrative around these changes and future plans which will only increase total government revenues by about 0.25%.

A spokesman added: ‘Chamber is extremely concerned about the continued failure of government to address the shortfall in the public sector pension fund which, this year, appears to have had the hole plugged by drawing down on reserves of approximately £77million.

‘This continued depletion of reserves is unsustainable and government must ensure it addresses efficiency challenges to return to a position of surplus revenue.’

It says that members feel strongly that the Treasury is ‘tinkering with the edges’ and not getting to the heart of the challenges facing the island.

It adds that Treasury now appears to have devolved responsibility for growing the economy to the Economic Strategy Report and the associated £100millon fund, however, the details of how this will work are not clear.

‘Following the budget speech, Chamber members are demanding to see more clarity regarding the government’s plans for enabling economic growth in order to build a strong, diverse, export focused and sustainable economy,’ it concludes.