BRITISH BUDGET

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22708, 21 April 1937, Page 13

BRITISH BUDGET

£855,000,000 NEEDED INCREASE OF £57,000,000 PUBLIC AWAITS STATEMENT By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright British Wireless RUGBY, April 19 A special meeting of the Cabinet will be held to-night at which the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, will explain his Budget proposals to his colleagues. The Budget will be presented to the House of Commons to-morrow afternoon. This will be Mr. Chamberlain's sixth Budget statement, but it is expected he will have relinquished the office before the Finance Act of the year that will be introduced to implement his proposals is placed on the Statute Book. Many speculations are being made in the press as to the contents of the Budget, but precautions to prevent premature disclosure have been strictly drawn and no reliance can bo placed on these forecasts. Publication of the Estimates shows, however, that provision must be made for an expenditure of £408,000,000 for civil departments, £14,000,000 for revenue departments, excluding the Post Office, which is a self-balancing service, and £197.000,000 for defence services.

In addition £80.000,000 is to be met out of loan, and a further sum of £235,000,000 will be required to meet debt charges if the amount paid under this heading in the past year remains unchanged. This represents a total of just under £855,000,000, which is £57,000,000 over last year's Budget total. It is assumed that, owing to the continued improvement in trade, Mr. Chamberlain will be able to count on a substantial increase in yield of revenue from most of the existing forms of taxation.

NO TREPIDATION FIRMNESS OF MARKETS INDICATIONS IN CITY (Received April 20, 6.~> p.m.) LONDON, April 19 Apart from base metals, the expectations of firmer commodity markets have been fulfilled. The stock markets are firm and gilt-edged and industrial securities are rising, suggesting that the Budget is being awaited without trepidation.