DEFICIT REDUCED

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 139, 8 March 1929, Page 11

DEFICIT REDUCED

BRITISH CHANCELLOR OPTIMISTIC FORECASTING INCOME-TAX RETURNS MANUFACTURERS ADVOCATE PENNY POST * (British Official Wireless.) , ~ Rugby, March 6. Mr. Winston Churchill, Chancellor of the Exchequer, yesterday received a deputation- from the Association of British Chambers of Commerce. It is customary for the Chancellor to receive such a deputation before the preparation of the Budget to enable representatives of Commerce to place their views before the Chancellor on financial questions. The deputation expressed gratitude to the Government for the derating scheme, which they believed- would be of great assistance to producers, and manufacturers emphasised the need for tax remission and advocated the introduction of penny postage. Mr. Churchill, . replying, undertook to give consideration to the representations made. Referring to the outlook regarding revenue; he remarked that they started the calendar year in January with, as usual, a very heavy deficit of over £130.000,000. due to the fact that the expenditure flowed out evenly over the whole year, but the great bulk of the revenue came in in the last quarter. That deficit had already been, reduced by £100,000,000 and was only just over £30,000,000, with weeks of the financial year still to go. They were engaged at present in surveying samples of the estimated profits for 1928, on, which the forecast of the amount of the income-tax for next year was based. These samples numbered many thousands, and it was on them that the extremely accurate forecasts were based. He would not have the results, for another fortnight, but he had a feeling that things’would not be so badly for Britain; provided no violent dislocation and disturbance occurred in dur affairs. HEAVY TAX ON MOTORS (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Australian Press association. London, March 6. ~It Is significant that the “Morning Post,” the chief Ministerial organ, in an editorial, advocates the reduction of the horse-power tax oh motor-cars as the best way Mr. Churchill can help the motorist. The‘tax of £1 per horsepower is. disastrously high. It is a question whether the road -fund requires the enormous revenue it receives from this tax.