UNION BUDGET.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 105, 6 May 1939, Page 11

UNION BUDGET.

REBATE OF £600,000. INCOME TAX LEVIES. 1937-38 DEPRESSION PAST ? (From Our Own Correspondent.) CAPETOWN, April 6. Presenting his sixteenth Budget in the House of Assembly, the Minister of Finance, the Hon. N. C. Havenga, announced a rel>ate of £000,000 in income tax. The Minister said he proposed to restore the 30 per cent rebatcment which last year was reduced to 20 per cent. For 1930-1940 he expects increased revenue which, with £550,000 carried forward, will yield £44,660,000. Estimating expenditure at £44,860,000, he expects a deficit of £200,000. A surplus of £1,650,000 for 1938-1939 was announced by Mr. Havenga, the revised estimates of revenue and expenditure l>eing £43,780,000 and £42,130,000. The Minister had budgeted for a deficit of £100,000. Savings on expenditure were estimated at £700,000. Nearly £3,000,000 will be spent on defence in the coining financial year, the

[ money being derived partly from the 1938-1939 surplus and contributions from revenue and loan funds. Measures to assist farmers will cost an extra £800.000, and tlie importers' license in the Cape will he abolished and ' the Province compensated by a special subsidy of £160,000. Mr. Haven,aa said that it seemed that tlie moderate depression of 1937-38 was past. The economic comparative figures showed in many directions an improvement without there being unmistakable signs that they were going forward to a time of prosperity. The principal increase was attributable to the fact that when the Budget wae drawn up the rise in the price of

gold had not yet taken place. "The expected yield from the income tax on gold mines is £355,000 (more than the original estimate." The second big increase was attributable to the incalculable item, death dues, which showed an increase of £275,000.