The Daily News FRIDAY, JULY 25, 1930. BEATING UP REVENUE.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1930, Page 8

The Daily News FRIDAY, JULY 25, 1930. BEATING UP REVENUE.

By most people the important feature of the Budget issued last night by the Minister of Finance, the Hon. G. W. Forbes, will be regarded as the scheme of new taxation. Everyone knew beforehand, of course, that the Minister was faced with the necessity of finding some £3,000,000 in order to balance the Budget for the current year, for he announced that fact immediately after taking office. His detailed statement shows that he estimates that if taxation remained unaltered the revenue this year would be about £2,830,000 less than last year’s,.the causes of the decline being conditions quite beyond the control of the Government. At the same time there must be an increase in certain “rigid” items of expenditure, which the Minister has fully explained, to the extent of about £400,000. These sums together make £3,230,000, but the Minister has been able to anticipate certain adjustments, which reduce the amount to £3,095,000. That sum, it seems, would just about meet the expenditure scheduled iu the estimates .attached to the Budget, but a surplus is necessary to provide for supplementary estimates and contingencies, the result being that Mr. Forbes has set himself the task of finding about £3, 345,000. How has he gone about it ? By means of reductions in expenditure and various adjustments, which are set out in another column he will be able to provide £1,684,000. The remaining £1,660,000 he proposes to take out of the pockets of the taxpayers. As was announced on Wednesday, about one-half of this sum will be obtained through the Customs; the burden will be shared by the whole of the people. It is the method of raising the other half that particularly concerns us to-day. In his list of taxation proposals the Minister modestly places near the end the most important item, an increase of 10 per cent, in income tax. It is exceedingly to be regretted that he has not been able to devise a scheme that would have spared the payers of income tax this fresh imposition. Already they are groaning under a heavy burden—so heavy, indeed, as to be actually crippling trade and industry and forbidding enterprise —and the addition to the load cannot but help to intensify the difficulties with which the country is now beset. Mr. Forbes has been happier in his decision to abandon the special land tax and substitute income tax, a change which those affected will probably appreciate. Apart from less important adjustments of land and income tax and stamp duties, the rest of the taxation is to be placed on luxuries. The proposed tax on “talkie” films appears to be amply justified, and the doubling of the tax on totalisator “investments” is legitimate. This tax will be paid by the people who wish to gamble, and paid of their own. free will. The readjustment of the amusement tax comes within the same category; it is entirely a question for the individual to decide whether the pleasure for which he has willingly paid a shilling is worth another penny. It is unfortunately impossible to

estimate with any degree of exactness what will be the additional amount taken from the public this year by means of each of the new taxes, but the increased return from income tax seems likely to be about £430,000. To find such a sum will certainly impose considerable hardship on the taxpayers. It will be remembered that when Mr. Forbes made his first statement on. the financial position he stressed the urgent need for both public and private economy. The Budget means that citizens generally will be compelled to go carefully in order that they may meet the additional demands of the Treasury, but it offers little evidence of any effort by the Government to practise similar selfdenial. The reduction that is proposed in the annual votes, which represent the cost of administering the country’s affairs, is only £388,000, and it seems that at least £200,000 of this amount is to be saved in the Defence Department. The Budget statement on that point, by the way, is very disappointing, for the country is entitled to know just what the Government’s defence policy is. However, the greater disappointment at the moment lies in the failure of the Ministry which has talked so glibly of economy to make an appreciable reduction in its own expenditure. If the Government had shown more of a disposition to share with the people the duty of meeting difficult conditions it would have been possible to accept the new burdens with better grace.