FRENCH BUDGET

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 76, 31 March 1945, Page 2 (Supplement)

FRENCH BUDGET

Maximum Taxation; Production And Saving

ANTMNFLATION POLICY

Rec. 4 p.m. PARIS, March 30. A capital tax payable over four years was announced by the Minister of Finance, M. Plevin, in a Budget speech, in which he laid down an anti-inflation policy. He warned against the difficulties of the year ahead and said that the Government, after some essential wage adjustments had been made, intended to stabilise wages and prices. The Government rejected any attempt to combine the exchange of old banknotes for new ones with a partial freezing of holdings. The Government's policy was based on a combination of maximum production, maximum taxation and maximum saving. France must be prepared to adopt modern, technical methods of industry and finance if she wished to hold her place as a great power. The authorities had now mastered taxdodgers. The Minister hinted that the price of bread might be raised to reduce the amount of wheat subsidy, and he announced that the alcohol tax would be increased by 20 per cent. Eleven other measures included an increased tobacco tax, and a luxury tax of 25 per cent on highclass drinking establishments. Measures for the confiscation of illicit profits would be strengthened. M. Plevin said that the Government intended at first to mobilise only income from Frenchmen's foreign holdings. The State would control credit, which General de Gaulle recently announced \yould be done through the reorganised Bank of France, under a plan which would be ready by the end of the year. The Budget provided for an estimated expenditure, including war purposes of 406,000,000,000 francs, of which 47 per cent would be met from revenue, as further taxation would put the brake on recovery.