Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. Provides Comments on the Recent Federal Budget Announcement of March 21, 2013

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - March 28, 2013) - Harvest Portfolios Group Inc., the Manager of the Harvest TSX listed Funds and Mutual Funds is currently reviewing the recently announced federal budget proposed measures with respect to certain financial arrangements, commonly known as forward agreements, that would eliminate certain tax benefits for taxable unitholders of investment funds that utilize forward agreements. The budget announcement indicated that these changes apply only to forward agreements entered into on or after March 21^st, 2013 ("Budget Day").

Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. has one fund that utilizes a forward agreement, the Global Advantaged Telecom & Utilities Income Fund (TSX:HGI.UN). The agreement for this fund was entered into prior to Budget Day and it is our current understanding that distributions paid by this fund are expected to continue to be treated as capital gains and return of capital for tax purposes until March 23^rd, 2016, which is the termination date for the existing forward agreement on the fund.

The Manager awaits further guidance from the Federal Government on the implementation of the budget proposals and will provide additional details as necessary.

For more information on funds managed by Harvest Portfolios Group Inc., please visit our website at www.harvestportfolios.com.

Certain statements included in this news release constitute forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, those identified by the expressions "expect", "intend", "will" and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Fund. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts but reflect the Fund's, Harvest Portfolio Group Inc. ("Harvest"), the manager of the Fund and/or investment manager's current expectations regarding future results or events. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations, including, but not limited to, market factors. Although the Fund, Harvest, the manager of the Fund and/or investment managers believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and, accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein. The Fund, Harvest, the manager of the Fund and/or investment manager undertakes no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statement or information whether as a result of new information, future events or other such factors which affect this information, except as required by law.