04
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Tuesday, March 6, 1973
This would make his department the second biggest revenue earner,
although nearly two-fifths of the expected revenue from rates in the new
financial year would go to the Urban Council to cover the cost of most of the
services it would provide.
Mr. Fry said that although rates had been criticized because of their
association with rents, and the fear that increased assessments would
mean increased rents, "they are a very sure tax, easy and cheap to administer
and very difficult to avoid."
"Rating assessments are based on rents and generally follow the trend
of rents, so that they do not in themselves provide a lead to increased rents,
he explained.
Assessments
If assessments were low, he added, a landlord gained by the greater
profit he could take out of the premises. "There is no good reason, therefore,
for landlords' attempting to use increased assessments as an excuse for increasing
rents this year."
Referring to the average overall increase in rateable values of just
over 40 per cent as a result of the valuation, the Commissioner said this figure
had been disclosed "merely to indicate the overall trend."
Ratepayers, he stressed, should not try to apply it to previous
assessments as a factor by which to measure the proper level of the new rateable
values.
"In regard to the lower-rental domestic accommodation," he said, "average
increases in rateable values have generally been in the order of 30 to 35 per
cent and up to 65 to 70 per cent for large flats, while the assessments for many
houses have doubled," he said.
/"Increases