PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 138, 14 June 1933, Page 12

PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

COST OF EXCHANGE *

In an interview today,.,the. MiaUtet! of Finance (the Bt. Hon. J. G. Coates)]. stated that in order that thft pabli«t might not bo misled he ■wished to «or« rect a wrong analysis of the Publiaj Accounts published in the leading .columns of yesterday's "Evening Pott.'* It was stated in "The Post," eai£ | Mr. Coates, that the additional charges due to the 25 rjtr cent, exchange fot tho final two months of the year amounted to not leis thau £840,000. "This is incorrect," he s&id, "as the additional cost to the Budget arising out of th» rise in the rate of exchange was £470,000 only. It was stated in my; explanation of the results for the year; that one section of the permanent appropriations, exceeded the estimate by1, £370,500 'by reason of tho additional exchange on London purchased- under the Banks Indemnity (Exchange) Act during the final quarter of the financial year,' Later oh it was explained that the actual cost of exchange purchase* under this Act was £470.000.. This amount was charged against under the permanent appropriations, bnt was partly offset by savings on other; items, thereby reducing the net excess to £370,500. The £840,000 referred to in the 'Evening Post' was apparently obtained by adding the real cost of purchasing the additional exchange,. viz., £470,000, and the net excess otcp the estimates of this section, of the. accounts, viz., £370,500. It will tini be clear that in the £-840,000 the cos* of the additional exchange was duplicated by the writer of the arti«le\ inferred to."