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REPORT ON THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR 1939.
Expenditure for the year amounted to $37,949,116 and the Revenue totalled $41,478,052.
The Colony's Revenue and Expenditure for the past ten years are charted in a graph appended to this report as Financial Return No. 1.
2. The original Estimates provided for total expenditure of $37,757,223 against revenue expected to produce $36,257,621, thus forecasting a deficit of $2,499,602 for the year 1939.
3. The general Revenue balance at 31st December, 1939, was $17,091,170 as compared with $13,562,234 at the beginning of the year. The surplus on the year's working is $3,528,936 as shown in the Statement of Assets and Liabilities attached hereto as Financial Return No. 2—the Statement is supported by 4 appendices in accordance with accounting procedure laid down by the Secretary of State.
1. Revenue. The actual revenue collected during 1939 was $6,220,431 in excess of the estimate. Of this sum, $2,786,449 was in respect of Head 1, Duties, and is due in part to the increased consumption of tobacco and liquors resulting from the abnormal increase in population and to higher duties levied on liquors and motor spirit.
Head 3, Licences and Internal Revenue, realised $1,496,835 in excess of the estimate. The main items showing excesses were opium monopoly, assessed taxes, stamp duties, water supply, and forfeitures. A notable decrease was shown by Estate Duty which failed to reach the estimate by $528,472.
Under Head 4, Fees of Court, an increase of $234,901 was recorded, this was chiefly due to the result of increased prices and larger sales of sand and the heavy increase in the number of official certificates and passports.
The revenue from Slaughter Houses also showed considerable increase and there were new items for sales of stores which now appear as revenue as a result of revised accounting procedure laid down by the Secretary of State.
Head 5, The increase in postage fees was mainly the result of the re-introduction of sur-charges on Empire Airmail following the outbreak of war.
The decrease under Head 6, Kowloon-Canton Railway, of $871,096 was brought about by the suspension of through traffic during the year.
Head 7, Rent of Government Property was $210,106 in excess of the estimate. This was in the main owing to the higher rentals obtained in the new Central Market.
Head 9, Miscellaneous Receipts, was $853,806 in excess of the estimate. This was chiefly due to the heavy increase in traffic on the public transport system of the Colony from which royalties are drawn by Government.
Head 10, Land Sales, brought an additional sum of $1,389,818 to Revenue in consequence of the great demand for building sites for housing and industrial purposes and the transfer of $839,704 from Government House and City Development Fund.