BUDGET SURPLUS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 69, 22 March 1934, Page 7

BUDGET SURPLUS.

BRITAIN'S ACCOUNTS.

Chancellor Refuses to be Drawn Regarding Plans. MAY REACH £30,000,000. (British Official Wireless.) (Received 12.30 p.m.) RUGBY, March 21. Although the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, in response to many leading questions put to him by private members of the House of Commons, resolutely refused to anticipate his Budget statement, to be made on April 17, there was much discussion as to how lie will use the surplus which it is now clear he will have at his disposal on March 31.

Tlie revenue returns on March 17 show that the surplus then amounted to over £22,000,000, and it is expected that this figure will reach £.'J0,000,000 in the fortnight still to run. The revenue already collected is under £3,000,000 less than the estimate for the whole year, and Customs receipts have already yielded £4,000,000 more than their total estimated productivity.

The figures leave no doubt of the immense improvement taking place in industrial trading conditions.

The weekly Treasury returns show that up to March 17 the total ordinary -revenue for the current financial year amounted to £696,053,578. This figure— which is within £2,724,000 of the estimated total revenue for the whole year ending March 31—► shows a surplus over ordinary expenditure (including American debt payment, £3,304,392), of £29,252,971.

A sum of £7,215,097, however, has been allocated to sinking fund for the repavmcnt of debt, leaving a net balance to date of £22,037,874.

The return shows that amounts of £11,966,000 in inland revenue and £7,762,000 in Customs and excise were collected last week. During the financial year to March 17 the total yield of inland revenue was £369,078,000, and the total yield of Customs and excise £277,227,000. Outgoings last week in ordinary expenditure amounted to £12,309,353.