UNEMPLOYED TAX

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22355, 28 February 1936, Page 10

UNEMPLOYED TAX

ALTERED INCIDENCE INDICATION BY MINISTER GRADUATED SCALE LIKELY Si • V. J ADMINISTRATION CHANGES 'fll [BY TELEGRATH —OWN CORRESPONDENT] CHRISTCHURCH. Thurada, ' The possibility of an alteration in the incidence of unemployment taxation li® was mentioned by the Minister of, Em. ploymcnt, the Hon. H. T. Armstrong, in an interview to-day. The Minister said the question of in. creasing the tax had not been considered. He had advocated a graduated tax, but Cabinet had had so many more important matters to deal with thaii it had not yet gone into the question, but he thought the tax would bo graduated on the same basis as income tax. "Anybody can see that the expenditure from the unemployment fund hag far exceeded the revenue," Mr. Armstrong added, "but it has to carry the baby in the meantime until the Govern, meat is able to make new financial arrangements. When the Government has made its financial arrangHmentsthe fund will be relieved of a good deal! of : its present expenditure. There will be considerable relief by the provision; of pensions for persons physically unfit for work, and the Public Works Department will pay for work which is rightly a charge upon it." The Minister mentioned that liberal grants to the, un« emplo\-ed for the Christmas season for bonus and holidays had amounted to £270,000. Mr. Armstrong said the Unemplojw ment Bo&rd had already ceased to fcino. tion, and the whole of the adminbtra* x tive responsibility had been undertaken by himself as Minister of Labour. As the board was constituted by Act of Parliament, legislation was in coursu of ' preparation which would have the effect of repealing the Unemployment Act and retaining only its best features, which would be co-ordinated* with the Labour Department under the direct control of the Minister. With the repeal of the Unemployment Act, said the Minister, the authority under which members ol the Unemployment Board were appointed would disappear, and it was in the lap of the gods what would happen to them. At present no decision had teen reached regarding the future of the members of the board, and there vm no truth in the statement published re> cently that Mr. Walter Bromley and Mr. G. A. Pascoe, £avo of the member* of the board, were continuing with thft Labour' Department.