BRITISH BUDGET.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 April 1921, Page 5

BRITISH BUDGET.

TAXATION UNALTERED. REVENUE 1000 MILLIONS. EXPENDITURE 974 MILLIONS. LOAN THE CHIEF FEATURE. ' By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, April 25. The Budget shows no reductions in taxation nor any new taxation this year, but there will be no remission of taxation until economies are secured. A specific duty of 15s per gallon is imposed □n sparkling wines, in place of the present fixed ad valorem duties. Legislation will be introduced to wind up the excess profits duty. The estimated expenditure is £974,023,000, and the revenue £1,057,150.000. A drastic reduction in all departments is foreshadowed. It is proposed to convert £032,000,000 of war bonds maturing in the next two years into 34 per cents. Mr. Chamberlain (ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer) said the past year had been the most remarkable in our financial history. He had anticipated a surplus of £234,198,000, and the realised surplus was £230,500,000. Corporation profits produced only £850,000. instead of three millions owing to the initial difficulties in starting the new tax. The total amount applied to debt extinction during the year was £259,500,000. DEBT OF 7573 MILLIOXS. The debt weight on March 31 was '£7,57-3,000,000. The floating debt was reduced by £37,000,000, instead of the anticipated £70,000,000. The foreign debt was reduced by £117.000,000 He had paid off half the Anglo-French loan in New York, the operation coating £51,370,000 With other repayments he had reduced the American debt in the last 12 months by 75 millions. Practically the only debt Britain now had, outside the United States and Canada, was [£826,000 to Sweden. His estimates of revenue and expenditure would both be affected by the coal strike. He expected to receive £120.>OOO.OOO arrears of excess profits duty. Legislation would be introduced to wind up thia tax. The estimated special revenue from war assets was £158,000.000, but there was a special expenditure on transitory war services of £65,705,000. No credit was taken for anything they mignt receive from reparations. The surtax on imported cigars jvould be abolished. . TgE FLOATING DEBT. The Chaneel’or of the Exchequer said he had to provide £80,000,000 to meet foreign obligations, and as domestic obligations require £113,000,000 the whole surplus would be required to meet them without being entirely sufficient. There "were no prospects of making ends meet if the revenue was reduced this year. The existence of the huge floating debt was gravely inconvenient and further large additions would be a standing menace to credit, security and prosperity. The time had come to make a serious effort to secure its conversion into longerdated securities. The prospectus of the conversion loan was being issued that night, and if the whole £032,000,000 Were converted the resultant figure jvould be just over £1,000,000,000. MR. ASQUITH DISAPPOINTED. In the Budget debate. Mr. Asquith said’ he was disappointed at the efforts to reduce the floating debt. The new conversion loan would have the effect of creating the belief that we were adding to the country’s capital debt, a danger not to be ignored. The real remedy lay in the reductica of expenditure. He hoped the Government would ’reate an Estimates Committee, with, some real power to check expenditure. Mr Thomas said the figures would create apprehension. The sum required for the fighting forces to carry out the Government’s foreign and Irish policy was disproportionately high. The Lafior Party claimed that the first remission of taxatjpn should be on indirect taxes, particularly tea.

THE LOAN PROPOSAL

WITH GENERAL-APPROVAL. AN ATTRACTIVE OFFER. Received April 26, 5.5 p.m. London, April 25. The loan is the only sensation of a featureless Budget It will increase the interest paid on war bonds from £31,600.000 to £35,500,000. Nevertheless ft is generally approved, as it will take the State out of competition with industrial interests in the money market, ft is understood Sir Robert Horne (the hew Chancellor of the Exchequer) is out to secure cheaper money. While at the Board of Trade he was impressed with the difficulties industries now have in financing themselves. The Daily Express city editor, though Approving, points out that the issue is Expensive to the taxpayer, as the investor who converts at the rate of £163 Dei £lOO will secure a permanent income of 114 s, compared with the present 100 s. Tn view of the inevitable Reduction in the value of money this offer is attractive. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

TIMES ON THE BUDGET.

TOWARDS INSOLVENCY.” I , demand for economy. Received April 26, 8 p.m. London, April 26. The Times, editorially, considers the Budget is a blunder of the first magnitude, but it causes no disappointment, because everyone knew the Government intended to drift towards national insolvency. The estimate of the national revenue is quite unwarrantable and the amount can only be raised by a crushing burden, which will greatly retard the prospects of recovery and result in the intensification of the deplorable economic depression, driving millions of Workless to wander the streets. The Times adds: “If the Government eannot reduce expenditure let us ipake room for somebody who can.”—Times Service.