FINANCIAL POSITION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 204, 30 July 1931, Page 7

FINANCIAL POSITION

BUDGET FORECAST. ADDITIONAL TAXATION. DOMINION’S REVENUE RESOURCES. (By Telegraph.—Special to Standard.) I WELLINGTON, July 30. I The Financial Statement to be prelected by Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes ■5-night will be classed in future years ► tlie historical emergency Budget. ■ Though a full programme of Governlental savings has been carried out, le revenue sources have become so ltricted that to maintain the State In ities, including the taxpayers’ Isidy of over £1,000,000 for uneml'ment relief, additional taxation of ■ibstantial nature must be imposed, f? other alternative has been ®ted, and tlie load has been thus Sened. Funds from accumulated ■uses are being used to meet last Is deficit of £1,600,000, and other fcds have been adopted to defer Jpssible expenditure. Full advanbeing taken of the moratorium ward to the funded war debt. 8 Finance Minister’s task, it is » to a deficit at March, x *not of £5.500,000, but of an even! f>nuL Um ‘ Therefore, additional indi(lr x P er cent, is pre- * ■ general increases in (Justaxation,. carefully spread by °r a solid primage duty, which i Stimulate New Zealand’s secon+inn ust - r ' es some special atten--1 m, articles in general use. j {! 1? a strong belief that the beer , ;) r likely to be increaesd to one sniui a g a l{pn, being double the preAustipf rat6 ’ tllough half that of Me. rs of Parliament are not dis+l?f , ;give ]® e slightest credit to ne Lured increase in the petrol is regarded as certain that • e of the public in arTni onS) a s disclosed in recent o a i balance-sheets, will projua r mark for the tax collector. Altogg- the Prime Minister’s effior I®. °?et the State’s financial difevery other device to relieve during the current involve additional burdens apitbhing £2,000,000.

ACCUTLATED SURPLUSES, OF THE FUND.

The accijdated surpluses of the Dominion again come into proV lr T nc< L. as Result of their discussion m the Housf Representatives in connection witltg flotation of the recent Don don loai^ n( j tlie impression appeared to treated that these mil- + v? nS Ti la 7-° Pyically disappeared (says , 6 Parliamej-y correspondent of the Auckland Std| "When the financial Statement is presented to l House on Thursday night, ono of f tables attached to it will give the { details of this fund, showing exactlbow it has been applied, and discing tlie reassuring fact that a large portion of these accuiHulations are still in sufficiently liquid form country in meet* 'current 'deficits. For the year fell ended on- March 31 last, the defWy j s already disclosed, so that l e accumulated surpluses account wlghow the following debits:— To balance revefe and expenditure: l £ 1921-22 1 279,831 1928-29 .% 713,966 1930-31 1.... 1,600,000 MONEY USED VR DEFICITS.

It is evident, tlkfore, that over £2,250,000 of the sjjluses have been utilised/to meet defiij. The same fund has also been drawn <p n in flourishing years to make paying into the Public Works Fund for cital expenditure to the extent of £3/0,000, which is saving the taxpayer ferest on loans to that amount. Loans have been retired out of the fund to the total of £667,901, another heavy saving of interes* and Bank of New Zealand shares, _lu| been bought from it, the expenditufi under this heading, £984,375, consenting an in-terest-earning investme i worth considerably more- than fe face-value credit item in the fund. | Discharged sejement has been financed from this fu| to the extent of £13,700,000, and |ne proportion of this, the largest xpenditure, must be still regarded a| an asset, though subject to considefole depreciation. | HAWKE’S BAY REhXbITTATION. Another important item i 532,000,000 in the Reserve Fund SecuritiJAccount, from which one and a half njjions has been temporarily withdrawn } finance the rehabilitation of Hawke’sßay. The Government has alrt taken £255,400 from the accumubjed surpluses for subsidies for relief 1 unemployment, an item which maihe regarded, as written off in the sme way as expenditure to meet deficits! However, with all its expenitures, the fund should disclose hquidfassets comprising investments totallingnbout £714,000, apart from the half iillion remaining to the credit of the Isserve Fund Securities Account, and sue isolid assets as the Bank of New Zifland shares and an advance of £2/2,10 to the Rural Intermediate Credit Boyd.