REVENUE DROPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 96, 26 April 1933, Page 7

REVENUE DROPS.

AFTER TAXES RISE. No Provision for Next War Debt Payment. INCOME TAX COLLECTION. (British Official Wireless.) (Received 2 p.m.) RUGBY, April 25. In a crowded House of Commons the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, presented his annual Budget statement. He said the expenditure B last year was £777,000,000, and the revenue was £745,000,000, a deficit of £32,000,000, which would be met by borrowing. He compared the' present prices of ■fitovernment securities with those of a year ago and maintained that the immense financial benefits would not have been secured if the Government had not insisted on a balanced Budget. Despite the shrinkage in international trade, the continued high level of employment and the purchasing and saving power of the people in Britain have been .maintained to a very remarkable degree. The Post Office deposits rose by over £16,000,000 and trustee savings bank business by £1,750,000. Conversion Operations. Referring to the abnormally low rate of discount at which Treasury bills would now be sold, he thought it advisable to take advantage of the present cheapness of money and convert a proportion of those bills into long-term security in the shape of a new 2$ per cent conversion loan now being offered. This consolidation of the position would repay any extra interest charge that might be involved. "We had a very considerable and misleading increase in the amount of the nominal dead weight of debt and at the same time we laid the foundations for a very substantial decrease in the annual charge for the service of the debt," he said. This was a permanent gain due to the war loan conversion and other operations. War Debt Position. Regarding war debts, the Chancellor said that in the year 1933-34 they were liable to pay the United States £51,000,00. Against this they would have received from reparations and war debts £64,500,000, but none of these figures, representing 'assets and liabilities, could be said to be fixed. Therefore, he proposed this year to adopt the same principle as last year and to make no provision for payments or receipts to and from these countries. The Chancellor mentioned that the duty on beer had decreased £6,000,000. Last year declines in revenue had followed increases in duty; He estimated the cost of his reduction of Id per pint in the retail price of beer at £14,000,000. The reversion to the half-yearly system of income tax payment would benefit 2,750,000 taxpayers and its cost would be mainly borne by depreciation of the fund, amounting to £7,000,000, attached to the 5 -p.c. war loan, which under the prospectus of the 3£ per cent conversion loan, was no longer required. This nonrecurring item would thus be used to meet the non-recurring loan of revenue. The Chancellor, concluding his speech, referred to the Washington conversations and declared that the most hopeful prospect of any considerable advance to prosperity lay in collaboration with other nations. «