FINANCIAL NOTES
GRID'S STRIKING PROGRESS
THE Central Electricity Board occupy the position of whole- sale distributors of electricity in this country, owning the " grid " and transmitting the output of selected generating stations to the retail distributors. They are authorised under their statutory powers to pay interest on their stocks out of capital in the early years of development, but it is a striking testimony to their rapid progress that they were in 1938 able to pay the whole of that interest out of current earnings. Interest on the £36,725,000 of capital allocated to general pur- poses have been charged to revenue, although the board was only obliged to pay interest on £9,55o,00o from revenue and had another four years' grace before they are obliged to earn their full interest. Moreover, they had a substantial margin over for other purposes.
Trading revenue for 1938 amounted to £2,754,368, an advance of £739,86o. The advance was helped, but only to the extent of about £75,000, by the abnormally cold spell last Christmas. After meeting interest charges a sum of £876,036 is applied to stock redemption, and the balance to be carried forward is increased by £429,o41. In 1937 the board provided interest on £25,895,00o of stock, applied £535,032 to redemp- tion, and increased the undivided balance by £341,817.
* * * *
Previous page
