PUBLIC FINANCE AND TAXATION
53
contributed $23 million), Fees of Court or Office ($15 million, including an $8 million credit from provision made in the previous year but not required) and Land Sale ($15 million). Expenditure was $58 million below the original estimate, the main elements of under-spending being Public Works Non-Recurrent ($44 million, which represented 23% of the estimate) and Stores ($10 million, due to running down stocks of steel).
A deficit of $92 million has been budgeted for 1959-60 but the figures for the first half of the year suggest that the deficit will be substantially lower, owing to revenue being slightly higher than the estimate and expenditure a little lower.
The formal statement of Liabilities and Assets at Appendix III shows that at 31st March 1959 net available public assets amounted to $599 million, of which $138 million was earmarked in a Revenue Equalization Fund as a reserve against future deficits on current account. There was, in addition, a Development Loan Fund of $200 million, used to finance social and economic develop- ment projects of a self-liquidating nature. The greater part has been used for low-cost housing schemes. At 31st March 1959 outstanding commitments on approved projects exceeded - the unspent balance of $74 million by $78 million.
According to normal government practice the Statement-of Assets and Liabilities excludes the Public Debt of the Colony from the liabilities. The debt at 31st March 1959 was equivalent to approximately $30 per head of population and was made up as follows:
34% Dollar Loan 1934 34% Dollar Loan 1940
$
360,000
3,301,000
34% Rehabilitation Loan 1947-8 ...
...
46,666,000
41,047,251
C.D. and W. Loans ..
669,600
Kai Tak Airport Loan
92,043,851
Indebtedness rose by $7 million during the year, in consequence of drawings from the United Kingdom's interest-free loan of £3 million for the development of Kai Tak Airport; this loan will be repayable in fifteen annual instalments commencing in 1961-2. The Rehabilitation Loan, which was raised in 1947-8 to cover part of the cost of post-war reconstruction, is repayable in 1973-8;