SALES TAX YIELD.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 194, 17 July 1937, Page 9

SALES TAX YIELD.

RETURNS EXCEPTIONALLY BUOYANT. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, July 16. Improvement in internal business conditions in New Zealand is fully reflected in the steadily increasing buoyancy of the sales tax yield. Collections durin" May established a record of £309,796, Although the yields in the mid-year months are .not usually the highest. The May yield was £14,714 higher than in April and £76,303 above that for May, 1936. For several months past returns from this tax have been exceptionally buoyant tlie figures for each of the first five’ months of this year being considerably in advance of the corresponding months last year. This trend is indicative of a higher volume of sales of commodities. Certain necessities are exempted from the tax, and it is reasonable to expect that, with an increase in purchasing power, a higher proportion of total sales would comprise taxable commodities, including luxury lines. , , .1, The following table compares the collections for the first five months of the past two years:-

As an instance of the increasing value of the tax to the Consolidated Fund collections for the first two months of the current financial year totalled £604,878. nn increase of £136.894, or almost 30 per cent, over the amount collected in the correspondin'* period of the previous year If the°rate of increase in maintained the vielcl for the full financial year should easily exceed last year s total of pQ Oof) 985 the Jnftliest since the tax was imposed in February, 1933.

£ ... 233 103 £ 294,431 180.875 194,624 200.101 296,037 234,401 295,582 233,403 309,796* * Record.