Bakshi Kanwaljit Singh: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBakshi Kanwaljit Singh: General Debate[Sitting date: 13 April 2016. Volume:713;Page:10474. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI (National): First of all I would like to wish all the Kiwis of the Khalsa Sirjana Diwas—and Vaisakhi which was celebrated yesterday in Parliament. Hundreds of constituents came to celebrate. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you Mr Speaker for giving the opportunity to many of the baptised Sikhs to come and visit Parliament while wearing their kirpan and participate in this celebration.In 1890 the first Punjabi arrived in New Zealand. That was 125 years ago and they started with bush scrub-cutting in the Waikato area. They progressed from there and today they own small medium and large businesses. Some of them own businesses that employ more than 500 people in New Zealand contributing to the economy. Why I say this is because Indians and migrants have been very hard-working and have been contributing to the New Zealand economy.This Government is looking after all those businesses which are contributing to the economy. As was mentioned earlier the Prime Minister today announced a package that will help small and medium businesses with their provisional taxes. Small and medium businesses around the country and in particular in Manukau East are the backbone of this country. More than 90 percent of businesses are small to medium businesses that employ fewer than 20 people and they are the ones that are creating jobs. If you look at the statistics retail spending is increasing every time. Tourism is increasing. The economy is increasing. That shows that the policies that have been introduced by this Government are working and benefiting the economy.Budget 2016 will contribute to ensuring that New Zealand continues to be one of the fastest-growing economies in the OECD group of the wealthier nations. This Government has been encouraging all businesses to diversify. We have been very much an exporter of primary goods but we are helping businesses to diversify. In the last year only if you look at the statistics there was a 15 percent increase in research and development—in just 1 year. That shows that we are helping businesses so that they can grow. As I mentioned the provisional taxes are going to be simplified. That is not the only thing we are doing. We are also helping small businesses giving them different tools to help them to concentrate on their business rather than concentrating on the paperwork. We are going to give small businesses with a turnover of less than $5 million the opportunity to choose a new pay-as-you-go option for provisional tax. It is very important because small businesses continuously struggle for their capital and subsequent to these changes they will have more money in hand so that they can expand their businesses and help to grow this economy.The way provisional tax currently works is that people by one method or another estimate their likely income tax bill for the coming year and pay the amount in three equal instalments. With the new options they will pay on only as much income as they feel they are going to make whether it is a huge profit or a medium profit. They will determine themselves how much they want to pay.More flexibility will be given to contractors who pay on average about 20 to 25 percent withholding tax. There are 130000 contractors who pay withholding tax which is deducted from them. Many will be familiar with the form that says if you are a shearer you have to pay withholding tax of 15 percent if you are a freelance journalist you have to pay 25 percent withholding tax contracting cleaners pay 20 percent withholding tax and the list goes on. We are changing this from 1 April 2017. It will be easy for contractors to choose their own withholding tax rate subject to the minimum of 10 percent.We are helping small businesses to grow and we will continue to support them. Thank you.