BRITISH BUDGET

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 151, 5 September 1941, Page 3

BRITISH BUDGET

FACING GRIM REALITIES 'With this fourth British War Budget we square the circle, reconcile opposites, and marry: irreconcilables. It is a triune affair— Budget of three K's. Sir Kingslev opened it, Mr Keynes inspired it, and Lord Kindcrsley will do his best to make it a success. Taxation is remitted to excess profits taxpayers, but the Treasury collects and keeps the money till the war is over. In this Budget of paradoxes, we lose our cake yet have it—or part of it, at least. The authorities are taxing the public now, but after the war the public will 'tax' the authorities. Meanwhile, industry has the 'alleviation of Express Profits Tax , which it sought. Mr Keynes's deferred pay' becomes a fait accompli (but -without any of his suggested family allowances) and the National Savings Committee is to collect some hundreds of millions more than before. Actually, all these paradoxes are resolved, and resolved on the Treasurys side, by the simple fact that Avhile the increased burdens are all immediate, the remissions are all deferred. The solid fact that emerges from all this draft-idrawing on the Bank of the Future is that the Exchequer is relieving no one of his present liabilities (except companies developing metals and oils for war purposes, and sellers of patent medicines), and is collecting an additional £150 millions this year and £250 millions in a full year by higher income tax and its extension downward into all income groups except the lowest. Undoubtedly, the Treasury has faced grim realities far more realistically—and boldly— than,ever before."—Financial Ncavs, London. " *-•