BRITISH COLUMBIA FINANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 106, 7 May 1931, Page 23

BRITISH COLUMBIA FINANCE.

TJNIVER&AI. INCOME TAX PROPOSED. PROVINCE LIVING BEYOND ITS MEANS. (From Our Special Correspondent.) VICTORIA, Canada, March 13. Under a Budget brought down in the British Columbia Legislature by Mr. J. W Jones, Minister of Finance for the Province, a new income tax of 1 per cent will be levied on the total income of all persons in the province, excepting only those who receive less than £2 10 per week, those receiving mother's pensions, old age pensions, war disability pensions and allowances, and those whose income is derived from actual farming. The levy, it is estimated, will produce £500,000 a year. It will be imposed in addition to the ordinary and Federal income tax imposts. Mr. Jones told the Legislature that British Columbia since the war has been living far beyond her income, piling up deficits and borrowing money to pay running expenses, until the time had come when the financial structure must be rebuilt from the ground up. He said 76.7 per cent of the Government's revenue went for expenditures over which it had no control, and that increased taxation was necessary to close the gap between expenditures and receipts. The Government's plan is meeting heavy fire, not only from the official Liberal Opposition but from Labour bodies. However, in the Legislature the Conservatives under Premier S. F. Tolmie hold 35 seats out of 48, and their will is likely to prevail.