FRENCH BUDGET

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25679, 16 December 1948, Page 7

FRENCH BUDGET

INCREASE IN TAXES PROPOSED ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE HEARS DETAILS <Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, December 14. The Prime Minister of France (Dr. Queuille), outlining the 1949 Budget to the National Assembly’s Finance Commission, proposed an allround 10 per cent increase in taxes. He said that the ordinary budget would be balanced at £1,179,000,000, but that there wou’.d also be a special Budget of £580,000,000 for capital investment and war damage. “Heavy as are the tax burdens,” Neuter's Paris correspondent, the Budget proposals are criticised on the grounds that there are insufficient economies, that no provision is made for putting the management of nationalised industry on a self-sufficient basis, that insufficient credits are earmarked for reconstruction and equipment and that the military estimates, which will be considered separately in January, are unsatisfactory. “Business circles fear that another stage of acute financial difficulties will soon be reached. This fear is reflected in a new rise in gold prices and foreign currencies. Black-market rates for dollars have risen to 534 as against 497 a fortnight ago. The sterling rate is 1540 as against 1280 on December 1. The official sterling rate is 1062.”