Deficit of £5,597,000

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 77, 2 April 1937, Page 7

Deficit of £5,597,000

Large Sum to Debt Redemption BRITISH FINANCES REVIEWED (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, March 31. The Exchequer returns for the whole of the financial year which ended tonight show that the total of realised revenue has amounted to £797,289,000 and expenditure to £802,88(3,000, making a deficit of £5,597,000, but the expenditure figure includes a large sum applied to debt redemption. Authority was given in the last Finance Act to borrow for the payment of statutory sinking funds, but it has not been exercised and the expenditure figures include a sum of £13,127,000 for redemption of the debt by terms of sinking funds, so that the current revenue of the year has exceeded the current expenditure of the year other than that lor debt redemption by £7,530,000. In his Budget speech last April the Chancellor of the Exchequer estimated the revenue for the year at £789,381,000 and the expenditure —including £153,251,000, the original total of the Defence Estimates, plus a margin of £20,000,000 for the defence supplementary estimates—at £797,897,000, with an estimated surplus of £484,000. Early in the financial year it became evident that the provision for defence would be exceeded, and speaking in July the Chancellor indicated that in view of the general acceleration of the defence programme it was already practically certaiu that there would be a deficit. In the Budget the inland revenue duties were estimated to produce £433,000,000, an increase of £28,000,000 over last year’s receipts. This substantial increase has not quite been attained, and the total receipts are £3,250,000 below the estimate. The income tax, at £257,250,000, is below the estimate by £750,000, the surtax, at £5,350,000, by £3,00,000, and estate) duties, at £88,000,000, by £1,000,000. This is offset by a surplus of £2,250,000 on stamps, which realised £29,250,000, and a surplus of £230,000 on minor inland revenue duties, which produced £1,730,000. The estimate for Customs and excise revenue was £317,500.000, or £34,000,000 more than the realised receipts last year. This estimate has been exceeded by £3,250,000, and thus the receipts from Customs and excise and inland revenue have together realised Budget expectations. On the Expenditure Side. On tho expenditure side the charge for the National Debt was fixed at £224/100,000 for interest and management. The charge has in fact amounted to only £210,873,000, leaving a margin of £13,127,(1J0, which, as stated above, has ween applied to redemption of debt. The Budget provision for supply services was £5(32,597,000. Tho total amount of estimates presented to Parliament during the year has been £578,088,000 including £41,091,000 fur the Supplementary Estimates, of which £11,138,000 was for civil votes and £29,953,000 for defence. Tho actual Exchequer issues have amounted to £507,230,000, the balance of £10,858,000 representing savings spread over several votes. Of the total issues, £180,072, 000 is for defence, and this amount is £7,821,000 more than the amount expected to be spent at tiuj time of the Budget an- £49,123,000 more than the expenditure in 1935-3 G. This excess reflects the general acceleration of the defence programme since the Budget was framed, and more than accounts for the deficit shown.

The floating debt now stands at £698,130,000, compared with £782,170,000 a year ago, and is made up of Treasury bills "’674,595,000) and ways and means borrowings from public Departments (£23,535,000). RETAIL SALES INCREASE (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, March 31. The money value of retail sales in February was 7.1 per cent, higher than a year before—the index number for the mfcnth being only nine points less than January, compared with a seasonal decline last year of 14 points. The value of stock was 2.6 per cent, higher than a year earlier, and employment was 3 per cent, greater.