SOUTH AFRICA

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 5 April 1928, Page 5

SOUTH AFRICA

UNPRECEDENTED SURPLUS.

TAX REDUCTIONS PROPOSED. A BRIGHT OUTLOOK. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT Received 11.20 a.m. to-day. CAPETOWN, April 4. The Union Budget shows an unprecedented surplus of a million and threequarters. Ibis has been allocated as follows: Half a million to redemption of debt, and the balance to the reduction qf taxation, including a twenty per cent, rebate for normal income tax and .supertax payers. Mining companies are not afl'eeted. The Minister Was cheered when ho announced the abolition of the system of taxing debenture interests at its source. Customs reductions apply to cotton goods, millinery, sewing machines, tea by twopence per lb, ohinaware and cutlery. A scheme of old age pensions would be introduced in 1929 which would exclude natives. The sum of £‘200,000 had been earmarked for the first quarter. The Minister claimed that the protection policy had not affected the cost of living qr industrial production costs, a statement which the Opposition dial lenged. The most notable feature of the trade was an increase of £4,500,000 in the export of wool, the prospects of which are the brightest within the past few years. The first war loans have been extinguished without re-borrow-ing. Concluding, the Minister said that they were entitled to face the future optimistically.—Australian Press Association —Unite d Service.