CUSTOMS REVENUE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 4, 6 January 1922, Page 7

CUSTOMS REVENUE.

INSTRUCTIVE FIGURES. WILL YEAR'S ESTIMATE BE REALISED? BFHBCT OF NEW TARIFF BILL. The eetimated Customs revenue ol New Zealand for the financial year 1921-----22 was £4,900,000, while the revenue actually received during the first nine months of the year totalled leaving, in round figures, a million j pounds to get in daring the last quarter, as compared with an average of over £1,300,000 for each of the first three quarters. It is coneidered in well-informed quarters, saye the "Dominion," however, that this average is not likely to be maintained by the revenue of the next three months in view of the very large quantity of spirits taken out of bond prior to the bringing down of the Tariff BillVery little revenue can be expected from spirits for some months to come, as it is eetimated that no less than an eighteen months' or a two-years' supply was thus released from bond. A BIG FALMNG-OFF. The amount of Customs revenue collected during the - calendar year 104J1 was £5,728,955, as compared with £8,-----033,342 for the previous calendar year, easily a Dominion record. For 1919, comparatively a normal year, the Customs revenue totalled £4,530,094, and for 1918 it was £3,600,853. It is noteworthy that for the first nine months of the current financial year the Custome revenue was a quarter of a million above the estimate for that period. Since 1914 the amounts of Customs revenue received druring the month of December and for the first nine months in each financial year respectively, * compare ac under:—

The new Customs tariff, of course, has not yet been in operation long enough for its effect upon the revenue to be predicted with any great certainty. BEER DUTY. REVENUE UNDER THE ESTIMATE. The revenue received to date from the beer duty is under the estimate. For the nine monthe the estimated revenue from .beer duty was £375,000, but the revenue has fallen short of tfiat by some £77,000. For the whole year the estimate wae £500,000. For the first nine months of 1920-21 the beer duty revenue was £264,5015, and for the corresponding period of 1919-20 it -was. £256,321. Owing to the increased duty —it was practically doubled—the beer duty revenue for November and December last was, roughly, £50,000 per month, as against £21,000 to £29,000 per month during the earlier part of the year. The minimum rate of beer duty wae previously s{d and the maximum 6d per gallon. By the Tariff Bill the minimum was raised to Mid, increasing by l-lGrf for every unit of epeci&c gravity above 1047; so that for stout it may run up to 1/1. For the calendar year 1921, the beer duty yielded £393,953, as compared with £363,596 for 1920 and £337,811 for 1919. ____^____

Month of December. 1914 349,485 lPir. 288.182 1916 278,202 1917 278,080 litlS 230,319 1»19 328,277 1920 010,503 1921 338,321 First Nine Months. 2,427,854 2,460,081 2,927,19ti 2,459,124 2,696,405 3,305,201 0,598,568 3,026,332