Objects and Reasons.
1. The object of this Bill is to raise the betting duty on cash-sweep tickets and cash-sweep chances from five per cent. to ten per cent.
2. Clause 3 of the Bill provides for that change in section 6 (2) of the principal Ordinance, No. 40 of 1931.
3. This raising of the duty involves reconsideration of the proviso to section 2 of the principal Ordinance which enacted that not less than ninety per cent., or in the case of a club organizing the race not less than eighty per cent., of the total contributions or subscriptions, after deduction of the duty, should be devoted to prizes for the subscribers.
3. The Taxation Committee recommended that any increase in betting duty should be borne entirely by the betting public, and to achieve this result as nearly as possible clause 2 of the Bill substitutes "eighty-nine" for" ninety and "seventy-eight" for "eighty in the proviso to section. 2 of the principal Ordinance.
4. The changed figures will enable the clubs as well as the Government to derive some benefit; but there is nothing in the new proviso to prevent the clubs devoting to prizes for the public a higher percentage if they so decide.
5. Clause 4 of the Bill provides that the amendments shall not affect tickets or chances on races run before the 1st January, 1941.
C. G. ALABASTER,
Attorney General.
November, 1940.
END