WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 June 1922, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

TAXATION COMMITTEE. AT HIGH PRESSURE. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, May 31. | The Taxation Committee is being bom- ! ■barded with sheaves of written statements bearing on the various problems it was appointed to consider. These statements are being supplemented in most cases by oral evidence, this course having been prescribed by the committee with a view to saving time and giving the members an opportunity to cross- , examine the witnesses; but personal at- j tendance is not obligatory, and every j effort is being made to shorten the pro- . ceedings. The excessive income tax, particularly in its application to com- I panies, is the chief object of attack, but ■ the graduations of the land tax, the I incidence of the Customs tariff, and the ' operation of other means of obtaining ■ public revenue ere receiving some pro- • testing attention. Then there are sug- ! gestions for the adoption of the “sales I tax,” a very ancient impost that has found some favor in Canada recently ; a J demand that State and municipal trading enterprises should contribute their fair share towards the Treasury, and a j hint that bachelors should pay for their single bliss. PROSPECTS OF READJUSTMENT. The Prime Minister took pains at the initial sitting of the committee to let the members understand that no reductions in taxation could be made this year. His statements, reported from the South during the last day or two, are to the-same effect, with the emphasis of a still falling revenue. He continues, however, to encourage the belief that while a reduction of taxation if? quite out of the question, a readjustment of its incidence is both possible and desirable. This is the problem to which the com- ) mittee is devoting its special atten- . tion. and though the members may not be unanimous on the subject, probably a majority of them would be in favor of i revising the graduation of the income tax and giving some relief to companies. This, at any rate, is the view of people in a better position than is the mere outsider to know what is going on. The Committee has intimated it can accept no further evidence after Monday next.

STATE AND MUNICIPAL TRADING. Some very interesting and suggestive figures concerning State and municipal trading undertakings in competition with > private enterprises are being placed be- I fore the committee, presumably with i the object of having these undertakings 1 made subject to the same taxation as are company and private enterprises of the same charatcer. At present there are, a. 11 over the country, municipal trading departments operating upon a large scale without paying a penny of income tax even if they happen to make a profit. In Wellington’ gas is provided by a company, and electricity by the municipality, and, while the company contributes a considerable' sum to the public trea- j sury every year by way of income tax, the municipality is exempt altogether from this impost, and practically from all other forms of State taxation. Christchurch is in much the same position, with gas, heavily handicapped by excessive taxation, competing against fax free electricity, while Auckland furnishes a horrid example of a tramway service. formerly privately owned and contibuting large sum to the public treasury. now municipally owned and contributing nothing at all. , ECONOMY. The various theories and schemes ' being submitted to the committee are mostly of a highly controversial nature, and it is for the committee to report upon them for the guidance of the Government and the members of Parliament. But when all has been said and done in this respect, it must remain ! fairly plain that there can be no mater--1 ial ‘reduction in taxation in the immeI diate future unless very substantial economies in public expenditure are effect- : ed. The accounts for the last quarter . i of the financial year closed on March 31 i bore encouraging signs of a beginning having been made with this absolutely necessary work, but Mr. Massey will have to keep his heart steeled to his disagreeable task if he intends to relieve the country of an appreciable part of the great burden of taxation under which it is staggering. Business men everywhere realise that the only hope for a return to normal conditions lies in the conversion of the Prime Minister s good resolutions into achievements.