Bygone budgets: March 1990

"A budget for savers"
Chancellor: John Major
Government: Conservative

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday March 3 1999 17.50 GMT

The opposition leader, Neil Kinnock, congratulated John Major on an excellent maiden sortie as a budget performer "even though there will be disagreements over a fairly extensive field with what he actually said". Many opposition MPs also criticised Mr Major's budget for failing to help Scottish poll tax payers, who missed out on a recent poll tax concession to English payers. But the new chancellor's budget brought a positive reaction from Conservative MPs who praised his cautious path through turbulent economic waters, predicting modest 1% economic growth.

Savings
A new tax-free savings scheme was introduced, called Tessa - tax exempt special savings account.

Stamp duty
Stamp duty on share deals would end in 1992 when "paperless" trading would begin.

PEPs
The investment ceiling for Peps raised from £4,800 to £6,000.

Pools
Pools betting tax reduced from 42.5% to 40% on the condition that savings were used to improve crowd safety at football matches.

Duties
Beer up 2p, wine up 7p, spirits up 54p, 20 cigarettes up 10p.