(Reuters) - British finance minister Rishi Sunak will set out plans to raise income tax by 6 billion pounds ($8.36 billion), The Times reported https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/stealth-rise-in-income-tax-to-pay-covid-bill-9h7v2trl6 on Sunday.
The chancellor will say he needs to raise more than 40 billion pounds to tackle the budget deficit and protect the economy from rising rates of interest on government borrowing, the report said.
The government on Saturday said Sunak will announce 5 billion pounds of additional grants to help businesses hit hard by pandemic lockdowns, in his budget.
Separately, the government said Sunak is also expected to announce an initial 12 billion pounds of capital and 10 billion pounds of guarantees for the new UK Infrastructure Bank.
A Telegraph report https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/02/27/exclusive-entrepreneurs-could-escape-rishi-sunaks-corporation said Sunak is also weighing up bringing back the small profits rate, axed by George Osborne in 2014, to support small to medium-sized companies.
($1 = 0.7178 pounds)
(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Daniel Wallis)