MORE GENEROUS?

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 244, 15 October 1935, Page 8

MORE GENEROUS?

GOVERNMENT'S PLANS. SALARIES AND PENSIONS. RETROSPECTIVE TO AUGUST X (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. With the session coming to a close, civil servants and pensioners will be anxious to know the contents of tiie Finance Bill that will have to be ir.tioduced before the House rises to give effect to the 7i per cent increase in salaries and the increases in pensions, When the announcement was first in,:de in the Budget some disappointment was felt that the increase was not made retrospective to April 1, as happened with the 5 per cent increase last y car. The Government's intention iu the present instance was to make the increase payable from October 1, but it is understood that it now proposes to be a little more generous, and to date the increase as from August 1, which means an additional concession .of two months. This will entail an extra charge on the Consolidated Fund of approximately £130,000. The additional cost to the fund of the whole increase for the period of eight months from August 1 to March 31 next year will be about £540,000. In his Budget the Minister of Finance, Mr. Coates, made provision for an estimated surplus of £13,500, but in response to requests from the Civil Service that the pay increases should be made retrospective he agreed to make a further examination of the public accounts to see whether that wfe-i possible. Since the Budget was prepared overseas markets have developed r.n encouraging buoyancy, and Customs revenue has increased, all of which will have a tonic effect on the public finances.

The additions to salaries and pensions, in conjunction with the reduction in unemployment taxation, will undoubtedly give a further stimulus to the lecovery that id now apparent in trade and industry