UK Finance Minister Rishi Sunak Unveils £15 Bn Plan To Fix Cost-of-Living Crisis

Rishi Sunak.

(Photo: Twitter/@RishiSunak)

Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, has unveiled a £15 billion package to help households with the cost-of-living crisis.

A part of the package is funded by a windfall tax on oil and gas companies.

A windfall tax, simply put, is a one-time tax imposed by a government on a large company that made extra-large profits due to a stroke of luck.

Sunak's package also includes some one-off payments, like £650 each for the 8 million lowest-income families and £300 for pensioner households, among others.

While the Conservative Party was initially against the windfall with ministers, including PM Boris Johnson, arguing that it would deter investment, Sunak has now said that his move would "tax extraordinary profits fairly and incentivise investments."

"This government will never stop trying to help people, to fix problems where we can, to do what is right – as we did during the pandemic," he said, during his statement in the House of Commons.

But Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Christine Jardine called the provisions of the package "too little, too late."

On the other hand, the plan received a mixed response from the Conservative Party's backbenchers, with some saying that it did not provide enough to fix the economic situation.

(With inputs from Reuters and BBC.)