GREAT BRITAIN'S BUDGET

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17687, 16 April 1929, Page 7

GREAT BRITAIN'S BUDGET

CHANCELLOR STRIKES OPTIMISTIC NOTE. STRONG POSITION OF THE COUNTRY. FALL IN BEER DUTY: BETTING TAX DROPPED. EFFECT OF THE GOLD STANDARD. The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Right Hon. Winston Churchill) struck an optimistic note In his Budget Speech which he delivered In the House of Commons yesterday. He referred to Britain’s strong position In the commercial world, and declared that London was regaining her pre-eminence as the world's business centre. The betting tax Is to be superseded; bookmakers are to be licensed, and an impost made on the turnover of the totalisator. No fresh taxation is to be Imposed. The estimates of receipts and expenditure show a surplus at the end of the year of £11,976,000.

((By Telegraph,—Press Association.—Official Wireless.))

(By Telegraph—Press Assn.—copyrignt.) (Australian Press Association.) (Received April 'l6, 10.30 a.m.) RUGBY, April 15. Mr Winston Churchill, Chancellor of the Exchequer, introduced his Budget to-day in a crowded House of Commons. In regard to revenue he said that last year's Customs and excise showed a deficiency, which was almost entirely accounted for by beer alone. Beer showed a fall of £7,350,000. That was an ' Exchequer embarrassment, hut not a national misfortune. The steady decline in the consumption of alcoholic liquor throughout the land was due to a change in national habits and the growth of alternative beverages. After making full allowance for trade conditions, he could not estimate for more than £79,000,000 in beer revenue this year. He estimated this year the receipt of £239,500,000 in income tax and £81,000,000 in death duties.

Owing do continued Stock Exchange activity and the flotation of new companies, stamps had yielded £20,000,000 above the estimate of last year, and he estimated a further growth this year, bringing the total to £31,000,000.

He estimated to receive this year £17,000,000 from excess profits duty and corporation profits tax, and £58,000,000 from the super-tax. The total receipts from taxes he estimated at £674,050,000, and from non-taxed revenue he expected to receive £79,290,000, making the total ordinary revenue £753,940,000. The ordinary expenditure was estimated at £741,964,000, so that he anticipated a surplus of £11,976,000.

No New Taxes. No ne’w taxes would be imposed this year. Un the other hand, Mr Churchill stated the 'tea duly would be immediately removed, the cost being £6,000,000..

One tax for which he had been responsible was Ihe betting tax. It had been more trouble than it was worth. The lax on the bookmakers’ turnover would be immediately repealed, and bookmakers in future would pay £lO a year for a certificate and in addition they would pay a license duty of £4O for every telephone installed in their offices; a half per cent, would be levied also on the takings of a totalisator, which he had been led to believe would he a fair equivalent to the license duty on bookmakers. The yield on these levies would be £850,000 in the current year and £900,000 in a full year. There would he a 25 per cent, reduction in the licenses for the retail sale of beer and spirits in view of the curtailment of the hours 'of sale since the war. This would cost nearly £2,000,000 in a, full year. Harbour dues would be reduced.

Despite the above-mentioned concessions Mr Churchill estimated the Budget surplus at £4,095,000..

Review of Position.

Reviewing the financial position Mr Churchill said the period of the Government’s term of office was chequered. There was the industrial disaster of 1926, but after two years of quiet there had been a sensible im* provement in the situation. The sa\ings of the smallest class of investors had increased while the Government had been in power by £170,000,000. The cost of living had declinedat least 18 points.

Healthy Indications.

A symptom on which he dwelt with more confidence than on any other, as indicating the general condition of the masses of the people was the increased consumption of tea and sugar. Before the Great War the British people consumed annually 6.551 b of tea and 811 b of sugar per head; last year they consumed 9.151 bof tea and 901 bof sugar. That was a record consumption of those commodities. The balance of trade had sensibly improved. The power of the community to export and invest capital abroad, thus fostering export trade, had risen from £80,000,000 in 192* to £149,000,000 in 1928. New Capital issues for home investments m 1928 showed a growth of about £IOO,000,000 over 1924. Whatever might be the future of particular industries or particular localities, they were undoubtedly dwelling, to-day in a more powerful, a more wealthy, a more se-curely-founded community than was the case five years ago. They were steadily improving their conditions and compared with most European countries maintaining their pre-war level.

The Gold Standard.

Speaking of the gold standard and cost of living, Mr Churchill admitted that the gold standard carried with it privations as well as reward, and his hope and faith was that the privations were minor and temporary and that the reward would be major and permanent. The producing industries as well as the entrepot trade had derived lasting benefit from the resumption of the gold standard. He referred also to the benefits it had conferred on overseas trade, which constituted a stepping stone in times of peace for their economic position. London, despite the sacrifices made by Great Britain during the war, had regained its solid international pre-em-inence. They were still the greatest international market and they had been able to maintain money rates lower than those which normally prevailed in New York, while the calls of exchange on London, which after the war were so seriously menaced, had in the last few years regained their timehonoured position as a favourite international instrument and token of commerce. There had been a decline in the cost of living, as a result of their ullcgiance to sound money. This

decline of 18 points was an increase in the purchasing power of wages equivalent to a remission of £160,000,000 a year in indirect taxation. In regard to the debt operations of the present Parliament, the Chancellor said a nominal dead-weight of £7,598,000,000 had fallen to £7,501,000,000, and the .interest on the debt by the operation of the sinking fund had been reduced by £9,500,000 a year.