Wanted – £2,000,000

Northern Advocate, 1 March 1939, Page 6

Wanted - £2,000,000

MR Nash’s admission that the Government is going to be about £2,000,000 short in financing the Social Security scheme, coupled with his observation that we Will have to find a means of getting it somehow . . . I think we will get it all right with the least hardship,” contains an ominous hint of increased taxation. „ . .' » The money has to he found, and it cannot be pulled out of a hat like a conjurer’s white rabbit. Even though the Government may seem to show a strange irresponsibility in committing itself to such a scheme without its finance assured on a solid basis, it certainly will ‘‘find the money somehow,” and those who are likely to he targets for increased taxation, at a period when the country is already one of the most heavily taxed in the world, may well begin to shiver in their shoes. Mr Nash’s statement lends colour to rumours that there will be an increase in the taxation of motorists, and motorists may prove to he the source of the additional £2,000,000, though tvhy this section of the community should be singled out is beyond all knowledge, except that they are a proverbially easy mark. When the probability of increased taxation of motorists was being freely mentioned before Christmas, members of the Government denied that any such increase was contemplated. However, it is still common talk in well-informed circles that a horse-power tax will be imposed on cars. This would penalise all motorists severely, but from the viewpoint of the Government it would have the advantage that motorists would not be able to escape the tax by not using their cars, as would he the case if additional petrol tax were imposed. A horse-power tax would also penalise users of large cars by comparison with users of small cars, and this would react to the disadvantage of the rural community, as most farmers find it advantageous to run a high-powered ear. For the present, however, all this is in the field of speculation. All that is certain is that, on the acknowledgment of the Minister of Finance himself, the Government has to find another £2,000,000. No matter what particular section erf the community is selected as the victims of this threatened taxation raid, the effects of it will he felt throughout the community in a further restriction of private enterprise.