LOCAL BODY FINANCE

Waipa Post, Volume 44, Issue 3182, 26 May 1932, Page 5

LOCAL BODY FINANCE

NATIONAL EXPENDITURE ADJUSTMENT ACT. HOW LOCAL BODIES,ARE AFFECTED. The Receiver-General, Treasury Department, wrote recently to the Waipa County Council forwarding an extract from the National Expenditure Adjustment Act, 1932, setting out the provisions of part four of the Act relating to stamp duty on receipts of interest from Government and local bodies' securities. Stamp duty at the rate of 3d for 2s 6d is payable on debentures or other securities issued by local authorities prior to 10th May, 1932, but exemption is granted on any security held by the Treasury or State Advances Department or held in respect of money belonging to the Post Office account. The exemption also applies to public service, teachers, and Government railways superannuation funds and to the National Provident Fund.

The clerk said that the position, so far as the Council was concerned, appeared to be as follows: As no stamp duty was payable on interest from the under-mentioned loans, no relief to ratepayers could be given: (1) Treasury loans; (2) State advances loans; and (3) any loans raised from the Public Trustee which comprised the moneys belonging to the superannuation funds or national provident funds previously referred to. The door was also left open to further exemptions, for section 5 (2) (f) expressly provided that, in addition to the exemptions mentioned, the Govern oi'-iGeneral might, by Order-in-Council, exempt any other securities of a class or classes. The chairman remarked that the position did not seem to have been improved. The clerk said he was still in communication w>;th the Treasury as to some aspects of the position. Discussion was deferred until next meeting.