BRITAIN'S BUDGET

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17076, 13 April 1927, Page 7

BRITAIN'S BUDGET

PROPOSALS SUMMARISED.

CHANCELLOR’S FIGURES.

NEW TAXATION PROPOSALS,

(Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn). LONDON, April 11.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Winston Churchill, 'in his Budget speech, said the estimated expenditure for the year 1927-1928 was £818,390,000. The estimated total revenue on the existing basis was £796,850,000. This was nearly £23,000,000 less than the estimate of last year. The Chancellor was left with a prospective deficit of £21,540,000. lie could not remain indifferent also to the shortage of £36,000,000 for last }ear. lie felt bound in the present year to pay off at least a substantial part of that deficit, so that the actual prospective deficit would be £35,000, 000 or £40,000,000. The Chanclllor enumerated various additional measures of taxation which he proposed to introduce under the Safeguarding of Industries Act. It was proposed to introduce import duties on motor-lyres, with a rebate of one-third on Empire-made tyres, and on certain cinematograph films. Me also proposed to raise the Customs and Excise duty on matches by approximately 20 per cent. On imported unmanufactured tobacco he proposed an increased tax of 8d per lb. weight. There would be no change as regarded sugar and tea. The total estimated revenue from these changes in indirect taxation was £5,880'.000. Mr. Churchill proposed further to take the reserve of £12,000,000 from the road fund into the Exchequer. This reserve could play a far more useful part in the national economy. lie proposed to reduce the lime for brewers’ credits from two months to one month, which would produce £5,000,000, and also to revert to the old practice of collecting landlords’ income lax in one instalment, payable on January 1. This change would produce £14,800000, and the.total increase in revenue would thus be £38,000,000 which would balance his Budget.

Mr. Churchill said there should be a total increase in revenue in 1927 of nearly £38,000,000, and the prospective deficit of £21,500,000 would leave a surplus of £16,500,000. In regard to the question of ecomomies, he pointed out that the Government had had to meet increased expenditure for new and very important social services.

LONDON, April 11

The Daily News says the proposed abolition of certain Ministries will involve their staffs as follows: —At the Ministry of Transport 553; at the Mines Department, 340; at the Department of Overseas Trade, 349. The Times describes the Budget as being ingenious. No previous Chancellor was ever confronted with such a position. The main expedients on which Mr. Churchill relies do credit, say the paper, to his skill in discovering new sources of revenue without increasing the duties on necessary articles of consumption. The disthe Times hopes it will yet lie retrievable. Mr. Churchill’s courage in strengthening the great mainstay of appearance of the Department of Overseas Trade is unfortunate, but Britain’s entire financial and commercial system will do much to support her high economic position in the world, upon which her future prosperity depends. NEW YORK, April 12.

The financial editor of the New York Times, in commenting on Mr. Churchill’s statement in his Budget speech that Britain is still the* financial centre of the world, said the fact that credits totalling £00.000,000, which were obtained in New York two years ago, would not be renewed, might be accepted as a tribute to the progress made under Britain’s gold standard These credits had never been touched. They were arranged solely as a precaution which was no longer necessary. Whether London could claim si ill to be in the old time sense the world’s financial centre, was, perhaps, another, question. London certainly had had to surrender a large part of her prestige in that regard to New York. The recent transfer of the financing of certain of the British Dominions to the American market had emphasised that aspect of the situation.

THE DEBATE OPENED. CHANCELLOR COMPLIMENTED. MR SNOWDEN’S COMMENTS. LONDON, April 11. Discussing the Budget in the House of Commons, Mr Philip Snowden, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer in the MacDonald Cabinet, said Mr Winston Churchill bad faced difficulties which would have been the despair of most men, but Mr Churchill was not like most men. Those who expected him to come to the House in humility and penitence did not know the Chancellor. He was not that sort. (Laughter.) He gloried in big things; if lie could not have a big surplus he must have a big deficit. Mr Snowden congratulated Mr Churchill on the courage and audacity with which he had faced the situation. A Cheerful Tax Collector. Mr Lloyd George said, in seconding the vote of thanks which Mr Snowden moved, that he did so with a feeling of gratitude for two hours’ brilliant entertainment. Mr Churchill was the merriest tax-collector since Robin Hood. The Budget was extraordinary, ingenious and audacious. Mr Mosley, Labour member for Smethwick, said the strike which the Chancellor blamed for his deficit was primarily due to the Chancellor reverting to the gold standard budget. The resoluiions were then agreed to and the debate adjourned.