AN “INCENTIVE” BUDGET

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26437, 16 April 1947, Page 5

AN “INCENTIVE” BUDGET

Advice to Mr Hugh Dalton

NEED FOR ENCOURAGING PRODUCTION

Rec. 9.30 p.m. LONDON, Apl. 15. Increased public interest in the 1947 Budget is no accident; it is in many ways an historic occasion, says The Times in a leading article. Huge deficits have for seven years been inevitable, and the part which the Budget could play in influencing economic affairs at large has been insignificant. There has developed since before the war, however, a new conception of the Budget. It is conceived in its new context as a potential instrument for guiding the nation’s economic life. Rarely before, in consequence, has the Chancellor of the Exchequer received so much detailed and unanimous advice. A small reduction in the rate of income tax and an increase in earned income relief are general favourites among the recommendations made. The Budget is and always has been concerned with providing, or at least not removing, incentives to work and production. The disappointing present level of production makes restoration of better incentives an important purpose, which is why the need for reduced direct taxation on this account has been so amply stressed in the recommendations. Nevertheless, the need to prevent further inflation, which is in strict conflict with tax concessions, is. no less great.