Finance
The Nation's .Surplus
Tim City is delighted with the wind-up of the Nation's financial year, which ended last Tuesday night. Indeed, having regard to all the circumstances of the year, the fact that there is a realised Surplus of praCtically £3,000,000 is a veritable triumph for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, while it is also a great tribute to the taxpayers of the country who have once again responded so readily to the demands of the Exchequer.
ThC final result also constitutes a tribute to the Chancel- lor of the Exchequer's cautious Estimates of Revenue it year ago, for, as a matter of fact, the original Estimates have been falsified on both sides of the Balance-Sheet. Owing to the heavy Supplementary Estimates, including about £13,000,000 :for Defence, the Expenditure rose by £16,000,000, a rise, however, which fortunately was:Jnore than offset by the fact that the Revenue exceeded the official Estimates by no less than £18,500,000, with. the net result that instead of the provisional Surplus budgeted Ica. of 000,000, we have the Surplus of £3,000,000. .Even that, however, is not the whole of the story, for thi Surplus has been achieved after placing against Revenue the new Sinking Fund of £12,4.60,000: To those not familiar with the National Accounts it may be useful, perhaps, to explain just how this amount arises. Mr,-; Chamberlain allowed for £224,000,000 as the cost for the year of interest and management of the Debt. Thanks, however, to cheap money and the rate at which hc•ivas able to issue his Treasury Bills, the actual amount required was less by the sum I have just mentioned, which auto- matically goes towards reduction of Debt.
SOME LARGE GAINS.
No't the least striking feature of the Revenue results for the year was the increase of no less than £9,000,001) in the Income Tax, whereas the Chancellor had only hoped for a gain of £3,600.000. Quite as remarkable, too, is the fact that instead of the expected decline in Estate Duties of over £1,000,000, there was an expansion of over £6,500,000, a circumstance, no doubt, partly due to the general rise in public securities. Finally, the outstanding feature seen in indirect taxation was the advance of no less than £11,300,000 in Customs and over £2,000,000 in Excise; these gains compare with an expected aggregate advance of only £5,000,000. A BRITISH TRIUMPH.
Once again, therefore, in the face of exceptionally heavy expenditure and other difficulties which might easily have affected the trade of the country, the British Budget has closed with a realised -Surplus and a-considerable amount of Debt redemption. - It is a result of which we may well be proud, but at the same time we shall do well to recog- nise the heavy burden which the taxpayers of this country are still enduring. The buoyancy of the Revenue is something to be very thankful for as it really constitutes our.-only hope of escaping additional taxation in the new Budget,-,when there is the prospect of a furither increase of nearly t-1-0,000,000 in the National Expenditure, about Which I abaft have something more to say next week. •
Airruca. W. KIDDY.
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