FEDERAL BUDGET SURPLUS

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 2 September 1932, Page 5

FEDERAL BUDGET SURPLUS

Saved From Financial Abyss

MARGIN OVER A MILLION No Further Taxation Intended PROGRAMME OF ECONOMY SALARY AND PENSIONS CUTS (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph Copyright.) CANBERRA, Sept. 1. The Prime Minister and the Treasurer, Mr J. A. Lyons, in delivering the Federal Budget in the Hou.se of Representatives to-day said the year 1931-32 had closed with a surplus of £1,314,091. The revenue amounted to £58,648,523 and the expenditure to £57,334,437. Mr Lyons announced that there would be" no new taxation. The following economies would be effected: Ministers’ salaries would be reduced by 30 per cent., members of Parliament by 25 per cent, and Federal public servants by £8 a year on account of the fall in the cost of living. Old age and invalid pensions for’ the same reasons would he reduced by 2s 6d a week, the maximum to be payable to pensioners' to be 15s a week. Tile maternity bonus, which is now £4, is to be restricted to families where the income is less than £2OB a year instead of as new; £260 a year. This will save at least £60,000 a year. Mr Lyons also expects to save £1,100,000 a year on pensions, £SOOO on Ministerial and Parliamentary salaries, £240,000 on public service salaries, £44,000 by a- reduction in the wine bounty, £30,000 by suspending the gold bounty until the price of gold falls to £5 an ounce, making the grand total of savings £1,479,000.

WAsRi DEBT AND TARIFFS

Expenditure next year would be brought down by £2,930,585 and a surplus of £12i,000" was anticipated, _ but this would be tinned into a deficit, of £4,900,000 if Australia had to resume paying interest on the British war debt this year. Mr Lyons said tariff reductions would be made during the year, and the sales tax lifted on certain goods, largely with the idea of giving relief to the primary producers. Naval, military and air force activities would be continued along the usual lines. A committee woijld report upon air mail contracts existing and contemplated. It was expected war pensions would be nearly half a million less during the current year. The estimate for war pensions was £6,950,000. Mr Lyons expressed the opinion that war pensions had passed the peak year and it was expected there would be a steady decline. He mentioned that old age and invalid pnsions 20 years ago cost the country £2,000,000 annually; last year they cost over £11,000,000. Referring to the effects of the depression upon trade and industry, and indirectly* upon the public revenue, Mr Lyons said that in 1929 eight companies showed a loss, but iby 1931 83 showed a loss. In 1929 the declared total profit of public companies was £16,775,000; in 1931 it was only £7,023,000. Mr Lyons emphasised the wonderful recovery disclosed by the finances and appealed to members and citizens to realise the “nature of the abyss from which they had been saved.” The Governments’ deficits for 1931-32 had been cut down from the contemplated £40,000,000 to> £20,147,000 of which £13,570,000 represented the New South Wales deficit, thanks to the Lang administration, which declined to adhere to the Premiers’ Plan.