Chapter 3.
PUBLIC FINANCE AND TAXATION.
Up to and including 1939, the Colony's financial year coincided with the calendar year but thereafter the financial year was changed to the twelve months ending on the 31st March. The budget for 1940/41 thus covered the period of fifteen months from the 1st January, 1940, to the 31st March, 1941. Owing to the occupation of Hong Kong by the Japanese at the end of 1941, no final figures are, of course, available for the year 1941/42. The Colony was under British Military Administration from August, 1945, up to the 30th April, 1946, and Civil Administration was resumed from the 1st May, 1946. The current Estimates accordingly relate to the period of eleven months from the 1st May, 1946, to the 31st March, 1947.
Revenue and Expenditure.
The foregoing will explain the gaps in the following table of Revenue and Expenditure for the last five years for which figures are available:-
Revenue
$
Expenditure Surplus
Deficit
$
$
1938
36,735,854 37,175,897
440,043
1939
1940/41
1941/42
1946/47
(15 months)
41,478,052 37,949,116 3,528,936
70,175,114 64,787,556 5,387,553
(Estimated)
56,786,000 60,642,715
3,856,715
(Estimated)
51,308,300 167,854,576
116,546,276
(11 months)
In view of conditions in the Colony after the re-occupa- tion, the estimates given above for 1946/47 were necessarily inexact, as no accurate data were available on which they could be based. The actual figures of revenue and expendi- ture are not yet to hand, but it is probable that the deficit will be much lower than the estimate. The expenditure will be much less than was budgetted for, and the revenue, which would in any event have been in excess of the estimate because of the comparatively rapid economic recovery of the Colony, has been further increased by the imposition of new taxes and by an all-round increase in the rates of existing taxes (See paragraph 7). The expected reduction in expen- diture is not entirely welcome since it means that rehabilitation has not proceeded as quickly as was hoped.
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