SUBSTANTIAL SURPLUS

Evening Star, Issue 21993, 1 April 1935, Page 9

SUBSTANTIAL SURPLUS

BUDGET ESTIMATE EXCEEDED INCREASES IN INCOME TAX AND SURTAX Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, March 30. Great Britain lias ended her Budget year with a surplus of £7,561,879, compared with an estimate of £796,000. This has been achieved despite heavy additional commitments and allocations totalling £12,342,768 to the debt sinking fund. Revenue totalled £716,441,000 compared with an estimate of £706,520,000. Expenditure was £708,879,000, compared with an estimate of £705,724,000. The principal increases in revenue were: —Income tax £228,877,000, compared with an estimate of £219,500,000; surtax £51,165,000, compared with an estimate of £50,000,000. EFFECTS OF PRUDENT FINANCE AND TRADE RECOVERY . (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, March 30. (Received April 1, at noon.) Britain’s financial year ended tonight, and the returns issued by the Treasury reveal the satisfactory fact that the surplus of revenue over expenditure amounted to £7,562,000. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his Budget speech last year, forecast the revenue for the year at £706,520,000, and the expenditure at £705,724,000, with an estimated surplus of £796,000. No provision was made in these figures for the payment of the statutory sinking funds, and authority was given in the Finance Act to borrow for these payments.

The accounts for the year show that the revenue exceeded the Budget estimate by £9,921,000, a total of £716,241,000 having been realised. The expenditure, at £708,879,000, is £4,155,000 more than the estimate, and the realised surplus is thus £7,562,000. The authority to borrow for the sinking funds was not exercised, and the figure for expenditure includes £12,343,000 paid by means of the sinking funds for redemption of the debt. Thus, the year’s revenue exceeded the year’s expenditure ■ —other than on debt redemption—by £19,905,000. The item of revenue that has most exceeded expectations is the income tax. The Budget estimated an Exchequer receipt of £219,500,000, and the amount realised is £228,877,000, an excess of £9,377,000, and only about £50,000 less than last year’s receipts, notwithstanding a reduction in the standard rate of tax.

The surtax has produced £1,165,000 more than the estimate of £50,000,000, and the estate duties, at £81,356,000, are nearly £5,500,000 more than was expected. On the other hand, there was a shortage of nearly £1,000,000 on stamps, which were estimated at £25,000,000, and realised £24,110,000.

The estimate for Customs and Excise was £290,000,000, and this figure has been almost exactly realised.

The Post Office net receipts at £12,250,000 are £1,750,000 less than was expected, owing partly to the restoration of cuts and partly to the recent reductions in telephone charges. The receipts from sundry loans and miscellaneous items fell short of expectations by £4,303,000. On the expenditure side the charge for the National Debt was fixed for the year at £224,000,000, which was estimated to be the amount required for interest and management; in fact, it amounted to £211,657,000, thus leaving a margin of £12,343,000, which has been applied in redemption of the National Debt, £9,000,000 being in respect of contractual sinking funds. The estimates for the supply service amounted to £462,000,000, and a further sum of £7,500,000 was provided for the partial restoration of the emergency cuts made during the 1931 crisis. During the year supplementary estimates have been presented for £19,250,000, including this £7,500,000. Thus the total of the supply estimates for the year amount to £480,000,000, and against this total the Exchequer issues have amounted to £472,160,000. The floating debt now stands at £833,380,000, compared with £844,710,000 a year ago. FRUIT OF SOUND POLICIES LONDON, March 31. (Received April 1, at 11.30 a.m.) The ‘ Daily Mail ’ in a leader congratulates the Government on the excellent showing of the national accounts, which is ascribable to Mr Neville Chamberlain’s cautious and business-like policy and Mr Walter Runciman’s management of the Board of Trade. It adds, nevertheless, that the collapse of the belga proves that Europe still has serious dangers to overcome.