£40,000,000 LOWER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21504, 8 September 1944, Page 4

£40,000,000 LOWER

AUSTRALIAN BUDGET SMALL TAX CONCESSIONS SICK BENEFIT PLAN (10 a.m.) . CANBERRA, Sept. 8. Australia's 1944-45 war expenditure will be about £505,000,000—a reduction of C 40.000.000 on the previous year. The total Commonwealth expenditure. according to the Budget which was ’introduced in the House of Representalives to-day. will be about £055,000.000 compared with £086,000,000 last year. There is no alteration in the scale of income taxation, but the Budget concessions, including medical and dental, rebates on income tax and sales tax and remissions on certain building materials amount to £1.000,000. Reasons for the reduced war expenditure, according to the Treasury spokesman, are the decreased demand for large capital expenditure and the diversion of some of the armed forces to meet the needs in essential industry in accordance with the agreement between the Allied Governments. The gap between revenue and expenditure to be covered by war loans and credits will be about £330.000,000. Trio loans mav be slightly different. Subsidies under the stabilisation plan of price control will be . increased from £l9 000,000 to £25.000,000. Assistance to the primary producers under the subsidy scheme will be about £14.000.000. The cost of the Governments sickness, unemployment, free medicine and subsidised hospitals scheme will be about £15,000,000. The main tax concessions of the new Budget arc: (1) First instalment of a system of taxation concession for industry to enable it to meet the cost of deferred maintenance and high wartime depreciation; (2) the inclusion of dental fees in personal expenditure for which taxpayers can claim a rebate; (3) the adjustment of medical rebates so that a taxpayer with a number of dependants becomes eligible for a substantially larger rebate than at present; (4) concessions m sales tax on certain building materials to facilitate home building.

Gratuity For Forces The Federal Treasurer, Mr. J. B. Chifley, said the reduction in the estimated war expenditure did not imply any diminution .of the war effort. He strongly emphasised that wartime controls, including price fixing and rationing, would have to continue and that the danger of inflation had to be resisted.

Last year the net subscriptions from public loans and war savings certificates had reached the record amount of £265.000,000. The public, however, could subscribe more in view of the increase hi spending power. A cash gratuity to members of the fighting services was mentioned by the Treasurer, though this is not included in the 1944-45 estimates. “It is the Government’s conviction that the nation owes them some signal recognition outside the ordinary plans for repatriation and re-employment, said Mr. Chifley. “The methods which the Government will consider include a straight-out gratuity—based on the principle of place arid lerigth of service or, on the other hand, payment for extended leave based on the sameprinciple.” He suggested that the proposals be referred to a Parliamentary committee.