FEDERAL BUDGET IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25607, 23 September 1948, Page 5

FEDERAL BUDGET IN AUSTRALIA

ALLEGED CONCEALING OF SURPLUS CHARGE BY COUNTRY PARTY LEADER (N.Z.P.A.—Reuter—Copyright) CANBERRA, September 22. A charge that the Prime Minister of I Australia (Mr Chifley) had faked his • Budget figures to conceal a revenue surplus ol £ 13,000,000 a month was . ■ made by the Leader of the Country . 1 Party (Mr A. W. Fadden) in the j House of Representatives. He de- .; scribed the Budget as “a dishonest and t extraordinary document, conservative t and prodigal, deflationary as well as inflationary.” Mr Fadden said that the Treasurer’* . consolidated revenue statements for July and August, 1948, followed the I pattern for the concealment of Fed- ’ eral revenue surpluses v/hich had been i adopted the previous financial year. , Expenditure for defence and post-war , charges for these months was shown as £42,900,000. That amount was not, in fact, spent, as loan fund expenditure for the same time showed a credit of £26,800,000. Thus, only £16.100,000 was spent in two months on defence. • In a final analysis the Treasurer had I finished those two months with a rev- ! enue surplus of about £27.000.000. ; With every increase in wages there i was an increase in direct and indirect j taxes, said Mr Fadden. “I have definitely proved that every shilling in the basic wage gives the Treasurer I £1,000,000 more revenue,” he said. ' | “Hundreds of thousands of Australians have to do without another £1,000,000 • worth of extra food and clothing. In other words, another bob in the pay envelope and you’re gone a million to . Chifley.” i Mr Chifley was “an outstanding record breaker,’’ said Mr Fadden. On the imposition of Federal income tax 1 in 1915-16 to 1940-41. the total collec- • tions from that source amounted to i £310.000.000. Mr Chifley had dwarfed that figure by collecting £1.273.000,000 in income tax and contributions or I £1.061.000.000 if tax reimbursements to the States were deducted. Since ; 1941 he had collected £2.231.000,000 in ’ taxation of all kinds. In the previous ' 41 years all previous Federal Treasur--1 ers had collected £1.622.000.000. Mr Chifley had achieved this startling record by extracting 30 per cent, ; of the national income in taxes, continuing heavy tax rates far beyond a reasonable period, delaying actioh 1 over relief on assessments and “cash--1 ing in” on inflationary periods. In spite of the claim that income tax had been reduced by £64.000.000 yearly. Mr Chiflev was now imposing heavier taxation than in the war years. An investigation of the charges by the Country Party leader (Mr A. W. Fadden) on the method of presenting the Australian Federal Treasury accounts is sought by the president of the Taxpayers’ Association (Mr G. R. W. McDonald). “Mr Fadden’s masterly dissection of the national finances should be closely studied by every taxpayer,” said Mr McDonald, in Sydney to-day. “My association’s investigations st the end of July showed an apparent surplus of £19,000.000, although the Treasury accounts insisted that expenditure and revenue balanced.”