WAGE TAX REDUCTION

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24743, 7 December 1945, Page 4

WAGE TAX REDUCTION

Quarterly Levies Abolished OPERATION FROM MAY 12 (P.A.) ! WELLINGTON, December 6. A reduction of 6d in the £ in the national security tax, making the combined social security and national security tax 2s in the £ instead of 2s 6d as at present, is provided for in the Finance -Bill introduced in the House of Representatives last evening. The reduction will become operative on May 12, 1946. Of the 2s, Is 6rf will be for social security instead of the V - previous Is, and 6d will be for national security instead of the [ previous Is 6d.

The social security registration fee of 5s a quarter for males and 5s a year for females will be abolished from April 1, 1946.

The bill also provides for a reduction from 75 per cent, to 40 per cent, in the special war-time export duty on uncoined gold imposed in 1939. A minor adjustment is made in the assessment of gtft duty on marriage settlements.

The rates of remuneration and the allowances for Members of the LfcgisI lature, fixed last year, -are made manent. A member, of the House of , Representatives receives an honorarium of £SOO and an expense allow- ! ance of £250 « year, and a member of I the Legislative Council will' receive an honorarium of £375 a year. These 'rates were to continue in force .till 'March 31 after the termination of the war, but a clause in the bill provides for their continuance.

employed during the war period, the amount being left to the discretion of the Minister of Finance, provided it " does not exceed the amount of the : reduction in his retiring allowance. - Other provisions are that:— '; The issue or renewal of meat ex- . port slaughterhouse licences by local * authorities shall be made subject to ? such conditions as the Minister of Agriculture or Meat Board may impose, cy '

The bill also provides for pavment into the Consolidated Fund of moneys originally levied for the War Expenses Account. The Minister of -Finance (the Hon. W. Nash) that moneys could be paid from the Consolidated Fund to the War Expenses Account, but not vice versa. Therefore, if there were a surplus in the War Expenses Account it would have to remain there unless this provision were made. • ' Provision is made for the payment of a war bonus to superannuitants re-

. For the purposes of fixing boundaries of electoral districts, a repre-i.*-ssntaticn, commission shall allocate *' members of the' forces and persons under manpower direction in such a T J manner as it thinks fit to appropriate £ electoral districts,- if practicable, and ? ; if not, proportionately to the several electoral districts. ; i;-

Mr Nash said the reduction in the i sscurity tax would involve the loss of ■."'?-■ about £6,500,000 revenue and the abo- 5- ic lition of the registration fee, the loss of about-£500,000. " |;