NEED FOR ECONOMY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18242, 10 November 1933, Page 11

NEED FOR ECONOMY

BUDGET UNDER l TAX RELIEF WANTED INDUSTRY HANDICAPPED (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. The Budget was described as a colorless document by Mr. A. M. Seaman, president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce. He said justification for tax relief was to be found in the revenue figures for the i financial year. Although the taxation | revenue was gi eater than estimated, there was a fall of £584,000 in the revenue as compared with 1931-32, despite the assistance given by the sales tax aud gold export duty, neither of which was operative during 1931-32. There was a drop of £133,0C0 in receipts from motor taxation, and a still heavier drop of £891,000 in the income tax yield, even though the rate had been severely' increased. This was strong evidence of the fact that the law of diminishing’ returns had become operative,' and that the wells were drying up. Furthermore, with the unemployment tax revenue added, the Government took by taxation £2.187,000 more than in 1931-32. and this from a public very much poorer. The figure only had been exceeded once in the history of the country, and that was 12 years ago. As for national economy, it had become an outcast. There was no mention by the Minister of any further specific economies, and the recommendations of the National Expenditure Commission appeared to have been relegated to oblivion. The whole of the deficit, and more, Mr. Seaman’said, was‘due to the venture of tile- Government in the field of exchange control. State spending was going up instead of down, and was (’limbing ahead of the ability of people to pay. Largely' unremunerative. State servieves were being given precedence to needyindustry and trade, and there was small encouragement for business in its efforts to speed up the wheels of cOmfnerce, when it had to work harder than' ever , to fill the State coffers.