POLAND’S FIRST BUDGET

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2339, 8 October 1921, Page 4

POLAND’S FIRST BUDGET

-The first real balancing of expenditure and revenue which any Polish Finance Minister has yet produced, was recently presented to .the Diet by M. Sleczkowski, the Minister for Finance, who emphasised the fact that by the introduction of a Budget of economy the first essential step had been taken toward putting Poland’s national finances upon a sound basis. The figures'he produced show a deficit of roughly 80,000 million marks '(the present exchange is about 8,000 marks to the £) for Russian and Austrian Poland, less the Polish part of the Duchy x>f Teschen, which i.- to form part of an autonomous Silesian Palatinate with whatever portion of Upper Silesia eventually falls to Poland’s share. However, the former Prussian Provinces, which had their own financial administration, and were not subordinated to the Ministry of Finance until September Ist, show a surplus of 6,000 million marks, which reduces the national deficit to 74,000 millions £9,200,000). The Ministry of War is responsible for 30 per cent, of the expenditure, which, as M. Steczkoyski pointed out, was largely a heritage of the war; and would be eliminated next year. Railways account for 21 per cent, of the expenditure, and food supplies for 10 per cent. The Minister gave some indications of the way in which he proposed to meet the deficit. There were, he said, various credit operations in preparation, of which the most notable was an advance on the exploi-

tation of the great Bialowieza Forest, which is being negotiated with a foreign consortium. He proposed to issue a fresh series of Treasury Bonds to the value of 8,000 million marks, and as soon as certain outstanding political problems were settled, to proceed with an internal loan. M. Steczkoyski gave the Polish national debt as 300 million French francs (about £0,000,000 at the present rate of exchange), and 148,000 million Polish marks.