Business chiefs are lukewarm on the latest Budget — with more than three-quarters saying Government missed revenue-raising opportunities.

And an overwhelming number rated the level of debt as their major concern — with privatisation, public sector staff and salary cuts and implementation of more recommendations by the SAGE Commission singled out as the best way to slash expenditure.

More than 60 per cent of those who completed a survey carried out after Mr Richards took part in a Chamber of Commerce breakfast-time panel discussion on the Budget on Monday said it had not been effective in addressing the national debt, compared to 37.5 per cent who thought it was.

One business owner who attended the event at Hamilton’s Pier 6 said: “The survey accurately reflected the mood at the breakfast and most people I have spoken to about the Budget.

“There’s a strong feeling that the private sector — employees and employers — are being asked to make yet more sacrifices and shoulder all of the burden while the public sector continues to enjoy the same salaries and job security because the Government is afraid to take on its own employees.”

The businessman, who asked not to be named, added: “The fact that we are being forced to underwrite an underperforming, unaccountable, overstaffed and inert bureaucracy is amazing, and the fact that the tax increases will likely be self-defeating just adds insult to injury.

“Even so, I think many business owners would have accepted the tax increases in return for some evidence of a genuine effort to downsize Government and balance the budget, but there is none.

“Apparently, the Government is more afraid of a couple of days of protests than they are of employers closing their businesses.”

Just over half those surveyed after a post-Budget said they were satisfied with Finance Minister Bob Richards’ blueprint for the coming year.

The top two answers for areas in which the Government should increase expenditure were education and infrastructure.