INDIA’S BUDGET

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 March 1946, Page 4

INDIA’S BUDGET

ESTIMATES PROVIDE FOR HEAVY DEFICIT DEFENCE EXPENDITURE LONDON, March 1. A Reuteii correspondent at New Delhi stated that Sir Archibald Rowlands presented the Budget to ■ the India Assembly. Revenue is estimated at £230,000,000.. Defence expenditure is expected to reach £ 182,000,000, ’©and civil expenditure is estimated at £84,000,000. The estimates showed a prospective deficit of £36,500,000. The British Government expected, he said, to spend £31,500,000 in India during the ensuing year, as compared with £260,000,000 spent during the year just ended. •He said that India was not committed in any way to a scaling down of her sterling balances at London. He recommended that a delegation to be sent for- the forthcoming talks on this subject, should co-opt representatives of leading political parties and other non-official sections. He said it would be premature and unprofitable for India to withdraw from the Empire dollar pool. India’s trade balance with the United States had been unfavourable for some months. He said he wished to correct fantastic guesses made about India’s contribution to the Empire dollar pool. Her contributions had exceeded her withdrawals from the pool by about £27,000,000 at March, 1945.