LOANS PROGRAMME

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 76, 26 September 1941, Page 5

LOANS PROGRAMME

LARGE SUMS NEEDED

EFFECT OF SAVINGS PLAN

(Rec. 9 a.m.) CANBERRA, Sept. 25

-Introducing the Budget, Mr. A. W. Fadden stated that in addition to raising public loans of £54,000,000, the Government would borrow by means of war savings certificates and loans from the banking system, making a total of £122,000,000. He revealed that the trading banks had given an undertaking not to make excessive profits during wartime, to act in accordance with the policy laid down by the Commonwealth Bank; in respect of granting increases in existing advances, and also to deposit with the Commonwealth Bank all surplus investment funds.

The Government intends to establish a mortgage bank to provide facilities for long-term borrowing.

WORKING OF NEW PLAN.

Mr. Fadden tabled a statement showing the effect of the new national contribution plan, which represents a total contribution, by means of taxation, State and Federal and post-war credits, to the cost of the war and of Government,

Under this, for example, a person with a dependent wife will pay on an income of £200 about £11, on an income of £300 about £33, on £400 he Will pay' £55, on £500 he will pay £80, on £600 the payment will be £110, on £800 it will be £180, and On £1000 it Will be £261. ;

The Labour Party will decide its course of action with regard to the Budget on Tuesday. ;

EQUAL PAYMENTS IN ALL STATES.

The national contribution scheme means that the total payments to the nation will be the same in every State for Australians earning similar incomes.

The national contribution will be assessed, and from this will be deducted both Federal and State taxes, the remainder being the amount payable as a post-war credit. The Federal income tax will not be increased except on the higher incomes, on which there will be substantial increases.

The Federal tax and the loan contributions will be deducted each week from pay envelopes after a date to be fixed.

Commenting editorially on the Budget, the "Daily Telegraph" says that the Budget was conceived, shaped, and delivered in an atmosphere of grim party and political strife, which induced the taxpayer to prepare for unimaginable horrors, but the document itself is not so terrible as most ex-

pected.

MUST PROVIDE ALTERNATIVE

If the Labour Party believes the Budget to be bad, it must convince Parliament and the people by offering alternative detailed proposals.

The "Sydney Morning Herald" says that Mr. Fadden's Budget shows unusual imagination and constructive thought in devising new ways of raising further sums from the public. He has undertaken a huge task in finding means of meeting a Commonwealth expenditure of £320,000,000.

He outlined new burdens to be placed on the public, and foreshadowed much more stringent control of industrial resources, all of which is welcome evidence of the growth of Australia's war work.