BRITISH BUDGET

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 118, 18 April 1934, Page 7

BRITISH BUDGET

"NEW SPIRIT OP CONFIDENCE” SIXPENCE OEF INCOME TAX The soundest budgetary position in Britain in recent years was reviewed in the House of Commons by the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr Neville Chamberlain) when he announced that a new spirit of hope and confidence had been established, and that the real surplus of the past year was about £39,000,000. A reduction of sixpence in the income tax rate is to be made, also a reduction in the liorse-power tax on motor vehicles, while half of all State salary cuts are to be restored from July 1, and unemployment benefits are to be fully restored.

HOME MARKET EXPANSION.

On the accepted principle of devoting the surplus to relieving the worst sufferers when the crisis was acute, half of all salary cuts would he restored from July 1, costing £4,000,000. Unemployed benefits would be fully restored from July 1, costing £3,600,000 this year. There would be no remission of indirect taxation, but the income tax would he reduced by sixpence. The reduction in the standard rate of income tax, at a cost of £20,500,000 this year, would be the most direct benefit to the country and a stimulant to the expansion of trade. LABOUR CRITICISM. Major Attlee, deputy-leader of the Labour, Party, declared that this was the meanest Budget on record. Mr Chamberlain had been wonderfully generous at other people’s expense, and the poorer people, even the taxpayers, put aside. The Budget was an insult to the unemployed from whom millions had been taken and a paltry £3,500,000 restored. The Budget resolutions were carried. The standard rate of income tax in Britain is 5s in the £l. TRADE FIGURES. BRITISH OVERSEAS RETURNS. RUGBY, April 16. A further expansion in British overseas trade is disclosed in the Board of Trade returns for March. Imports for last month were of the value of £61,969,627, as compared with £57,353,979 in February and £56,351,612 in March of last year. Exports last month represented £33,068,540 worth of United Kingdom manufactured goods, ooal, and other raw materials, and £6,631,427 of re-exported merchandise, mainly raw materials dealt with by merchant firms. Excluding re-exports, competitive export figures for the previous month and for March, 1933, were £30,060,451 and £32,550,721. It is noteworthy that owing to tlie Easter holidays there were two fewer working days last month than in March, 1933. The value of re-exports in March last year was £3,883,020. Of the increase over March, 1933, of £5,618,015 in imports, over £4,000,000 is represented by increased imports of raw materials and indicates additional employment in staple industries. In every classification of imports of raw materials and articles mainly unmanufactured, there was an increase last month over March, 1933. For the first three months of the current year the imports are valued at £25,690,789 more than in the corresponding period of last year, hut they are £9,620,612 less than in the first three months of 1932. Exports compared for the same three-monthly period show increases respectively of £5,011,995 and £2,367,333. Increases in exports fall mainly under the headings iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, woollen manufactures, chemicals and motor cars.

REASON FOR BETTER CONDITIONS. SURPLUS TO REDUCE NATIONAL DEBT. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph —Copyright.) Received April 18, 9.35 a.m. , LONDON, April 17. j In his Budget speech before a crowded House of Commons, Mr Neville Chamberlain, Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that the Budget would show that the Government’s efforts had borne fruit and a new spirit of hope and confidence had been established. The position was due to the expansion of the Home market. Though the country had regained its place as an exporter, the export trade was - still far behind the figures of a few years The actual surplus of £31,000,000 did not represent the true figure, as sinking fund and interest had been paid from income. The real surplus was about £39,000,000. The saving of £4,500,000 on supply services was largely due to the decreased unemployment, the provision for which had been more than covered by the Supplementary Estimates. Customs gave a surplus of £4,000,000 from the Import Duties Act, £2,000,000 from the Ottawa Agreement Act and £1,000,000 from the special Free State duties. The beer revenue was yielding £5,000,000 above expectations. Spirits, wines and liquor revenue had increased, but the tea and sugar yields had declined.

The Inland Revenue receipts were £14,000,000 higher. Income tax and super tax were the same as in 1933. Death duties included the largest payment from a single estate in the history of the tax. Post Office receipts were £1,400,000 above the estimates of last year. REDUCTION OF NATIONAL DEBT. The surplus, Mr Chamberlain said, must be devoted to reduction of the national debt. This would nearly counter-balance the £32,000,000 borrowed last year to meet the deficit. The total deadweight debt reduction would be £21,500,000. It was not proposed to provide for the payment of war debt to America or reparations payments to Britain. ESTIMATES FOR CURRENT YEAR. Taking a reasonably optimistic view of the course of trade, it was expected that the import duties yield would rise to £24,000,000. The estimated total Customs and Excise revenue was £298,000,000. The estimated total ordinary revenue, on the existing basis of taxation, would yield £727,000,000, leaving a surplus of £29,100,000. This would be the largest surplus for fifteen years, and permitted taxation relief. CONCESSIONS TO TAXPAYERS. Tlie horse-power tax on motor cars would be reduced from £1 _to 15s, with a corresponding reduction in the motor-cycle tax.