FEDERAL SURPLUS

Evening Post, Issue 89, 17 April 1933, Page 7

FEDERAL SURPLUS

ENCOURAGING OUTLOOK

BIG CUSTOMS REVENUE

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, April 6. Australian. Customs collections for March were £2,851,000, ana were the third highest during any month of the current financial year, and £387,772 above March last year. The increase in the Customs revenue compared with the estimate of the Federal Treasurer for the nine months of the current financial year is now £4,535,000. The postal revenue.for the nine months shows a surplus of £13,270 over the estimate. These figures bear out the statement that was made when the Budget was submitted to Parliament that the estimates were on the conservative side. The Treasurer might well reply that he was not optimistic enough to' believe that there could have been such a revival in .trade. . It is certainly an encouraging sign, and tho outlook is regarded with satisfaction. Although the figures quoted indicate a substantial Federal surplus, tax remissions provided since the Budget was brought down, amounting to £2,100,000 and wheat and other farm relief estimated at £2,250,000, have to be deducted from tho revenue before the real surplus can be calculated. Estimates of the final position at the end of the year are still in the nature' of guess work, because the income tax collections for the remainder of the period are an unknown quantity, and subject to considerable variation. Favourable as tho present figures are. tho Federal surplus_ at the end of the financial year may not exceed £2,000,000. The buoyancy of the Customs and postal figures is an important trade barometer, showing greater business activity than at this time last year, and the effect upon the sales-tax revenue will be beneficial from the point of view of the Federal Treasurer. It is noteworthy, too, that there has been a further substantial decline in the number of old-age pensions. This is due, no doubt, to a tightening of the law and to stricter supervision. Tha means test has been applied all over the Commonwealth, and because of the nature of the inquiries now being made there has been a fall in the number of claimants. It was revealed that scores of people were collecting pensions who could live quite comfortably without them, and, again, that scores of relatives were failing to do their duty. Compared with March last year there was a decline of 50 per cent, this year in the number of applicants for pensions. This decline, and the small decline in the number of invalid pensions, will help the Treasurer to show a greater surplus.