$30 billion reasons not to lift contribution caps
It seems unlikely the Federal Government will move early to lift superannuation concessional contribution caps in circumstances where both the Treasurer, Joe Hockey and the Minister for Finance, Senator Mathias Cormann, have declared the Budget to be in worse shape than envisaged.
In a joint media briefing conducted on Friday based on the Final Budget Outcome for the previous Government's second-last Budget, Hockey and Cormann declared that the newly-elected Abbott Government was inheriting a $30 billion deficit.
This would seem to preclude any early move to lift concessional contribution caps in circumstances where Cormann said before the election that while the Coalition was in favour of such a move it would ultimately be reliant on the state of the Budget.
Hockey and Cormann declined to make any specific commitments with respect to the Budget but signaled that a number of issues would be made clear when the Government delivered its first Budget update, probably in January.
In the meantime, the two ministers said they were undertaking a detailed review of the Budget situation while Hockey said that he, the Assistant Treasurer, Senator Arthur Sinodinos, and Parliamentary Secretary, Steven Ciobo, had held a joint meeting with Treasury staff last week.
The Financial Services industry is hopeful of receiving the precise break-down of portfolio responsibilities for Sinodinos and Ciobo this week.
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