SHARP DECLINE

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21207, 2 September 1940, Page 9

SHARP DECLINE

CUSTOMS REVENUE LESS FROM MOTOR SPIRIT AMOUNT TO WAR ACCOUNT (By Telegrapti.—Special to Times) AUCKLAND, Monday A decline of £87,869 compared with the revenue for August, 1939, is shown in the customs returns for last month at the port of Auckland. The aggregate for the first eight months of the year was £254,192 below that of the corresponding period in 1939. Receipts last month totalled £281,536, against £369,405, and the respective totals for the eight months’ period were £2,698,690 and £2,952,882. An analysis of the figures for last month, with corresponding particulars for August, 1939, in parentheses, is as follows:—Customs, £231,762 (£290,427); motor spirit at 6d a gallon, £47,879 (£76,626); tyre duty, £1895 (£2352). Excise on beer brought £23,933, compared with £22,638 in August last year, and sales tax rose sharply from £84,804 last year to £95,476. The eight months* figures for excise on beer last year were £138,706, considerably below this year’s total of £201,900. Sales tax over the same period rose from £726,154 to £749,014. A feature of last month’s returns was the sharp rise in the amount of revenue going to the war expenses account, which increased from under £20,000 in July to over £96,500. This was the result of recent tariff changes and the regulation providing for war expenses revenue from the tariffs. The account consists of 25 per cent of the additional revenue on tobacco and cigarettes, 15 per cent of the additional duty on spirits, 3d a gallon on beer excise, 75 per cent of the difference between the New Zealand fixed price for gold and the London price, and, since June 28, half of the 10 per cent sales tax. CHRISTCHURCH FIGURES DECREASE OF £25,000 (By Telegrapn.—Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, Sunday A decrease of £25,000, compared with August last year, is shown in customs revenue received at Christchurch. The total revenue collected, however, was £185,881, against £179,391 last August, but this year £38,951 goes to the War Expenses Account. Details for August, with those of last year in parentheses, are:— Customs, £72,709 (£97,951); beer, £13,717 (£14,341); petrol, £17,456 (£26,661); tyres, £932 (£550); sales tax, £41,154 (£37,626). For five months of this financial year the total is £936,553, compared with £879,291 last year.