According to a government document, British Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt has dropped a plan to tax sovereign wealth funds investing in the UK.
According to the report, which details the measures in Hunt’s budget plan, “the government has carefully considered” responses to its consultation on the immunity of sovereign funds from direct taxation.
“It has decided that no changes will be made to the current exemption and that it will continue to operate as it does now,” according to the document, which was first reported by the Financial Times on Friday.
According to the Financial Times, business and trade minister Kemi Badenoch urged the Treasury to withdraw the proposals due to concerns that sovereign funds would withdraw from projects in the UK.
Sovereign wealth funds from the Middle East and elsewhere have been big investors in some British infrastructure projects as well as in commercial property.
