TWO FEATURES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 1, 2 January 1937, Page 12

TWO FEATURES

BRITISH FINANCES PROSPERITY & RISING COST OF ARMAMENTS 9 MONTHS' FIGURES (British Offioi.il Wireless.) (Received January 2, 1.50 p.m.) RUGBY, January 1. The Exchequer returns for the first nine months of the financial year reflect on the revenue side the increasing national prosperity, and on the expenditure side the rising cost of rearmament. Ordinary revenue from direct and indirect taxation amounts to £443,293,814, compared with £435,924,367 at the end of 1935. Customs and excise revenue at £243,210,000 shows an increase on the first nine months of 1935 of £11,982,000, but there is a drop i'n the return of income tax of £2,910,000, and in estate duty of £2,000,000. As the bulk of income tax payments are made in the final quarter of the financial year, the results of the first nine months do not offer a safe criterion of the final yield. The estimated income tax yield for the full year is £259,000,000, and the amount so far collected is £76,966,000. On the expenditure side there has been an increase in ordinary outgoings of £32,198,035, of which £31,650,000 was absorbed by the Army, the Navy, and the Air votes. The outcome of the nine months is that the deficit, which a year ago was £114,025.665, has been increased to £138,854,253. Commentators in newspapers regard the returns on the whole as very satisfactory! if somewhat under expectations. ' The Chancellor of (he Exchequer anticipated that the year would end in a deficit. The best figures for any year since 1930 appear in the banking and clearing house returns for the. whole of 1936. The aggregate of £40,616,574,000 is 8.1 per cent, above last year's total.