£5,597,000 DEFICIT IN BRITAIN

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 64, 2 April 1937, Page 3

£5,597,000 DEFICIT IN BRITAIN

(Britiah Official Wireleas.)

Large Sum to Debt Redemption DEFENCE EXPENSES

RUGBY, March 3L The Exchequer xeturni for the whola of the. finaneial. year which ended toy night^ show that the total of realised) revenue has amounted to .-£797,289,0001 and expenditure to ■' £802,886,000, mak-j ing a deficit of £5,597,000, but the ex-i ,penditure figure includes a large *nm| [applied to debt redemption. Authority wa® given in the last FiJnance. Aet to borrow for the payment . jof statutory sinking f unds, bnt it haa • jnot been exereised and the expenditure -figures include a sum of £13,127,000 for •redemption • of ' the debt by terms of isinking funds,-so that the current reiyenue of the year has exceeded the (Current expenditure of the year other1 than that for debt redemption by £7,530,000. In his Budget speeeh last April the Chancellor of the Exchequer estimated the revenue for the year at £789,381,000 • and the expenditure — including £158,- . 251,000,' the original total of the Defence Estimates, plus a margin of £20,000,000 for ihe defence supplementaTy estimates — at £797,897,000, with an estimated surplus of £484,000. Early in fche finaneial year it became evident that the provision for defence would be exceeded, and speaking in July the 'Chancellor indicated that in view of the general. acceleration of the defence programme it vras already practically eer'tain that there would be & deficit. In the Budget the • inland revenue duties .were estimated to produce. £433,000,000, an increase of £28,000, OtiOi over last year's receipts. This substan-i tial increase has not quite been attain-' ed, and the total receipts are £3,250,000 below the estimate. The income tax, at £257,250,000, is below the estimate by> £750,000, the surtax, at £5,350,000, by £3,00,000, and estate duties, at £88,000,000, by £1,000,000. This ii offset by.a surplus of £2,250,000 on stamps, whieh realised £29,250,000, and a surplus of £230,000 on minor inland re-i venue duties, which produeed £1,730,^ 000. The estimate. for Customs and excise revenue was £31'7, 500^000, or £34,000,000 more than the. realised receipts last year. This estimate has , been exceeded by £8,250,050, and thus the receipts from Customs and excise and iuland revenue have together realised Budget ex* poctations. - On the Expenditure Side. On the expenditure side the charge for the National Debt was . fixed at £224^000,000 for ihterest and management. The charge has in fact amounted to only £210,873,000, 'leaving a margin of £13,127,000, which, as stated above, has ueen applied to redemption of debt. The Budget provision for supply services was £562,597,000. The total amount of estimates presented to Parliament during the year has been £578,088,000 including £41,091,000 for the Suppiementary Estimates, of which £11,138,000 was for civil . votes and £29,953, |)00 for defence. The actual Exchequer issUes have amounted to £567,230,000, the balance of £10,858,000 representing savings spread over several votes. Of the total issues, £186,072,000 is for defence, and this amount is £7,821,000 more than the amount expected to be spent at the time of the; Budget an_ £49,123,000 more than thej expenditure in 1935-36. This excess re-, flects the general acceleration of the de-j fence programme sinee the Budget wasj framed, and more than accounts for the! deficit shown. I The floating debt now stands at! £698,130,000, compared with £782,170,000 a year ago, and is made up of Treasury bills '"674,595,000) and ways aild means borrowmgs from public Departments (£23,535,000). '