13
Wednesday, February 27, 1974
F.S. SPEAKS ON BUDGET ON AIR
*
The Financial Secretary, Mr. Philip Haddon-Cave, spoke on
the 1974-75 budget in a broadcast this (Wednesday) evening.
Council.
The following is the full text of his talk:
"Good Evening:
"This afternoon I presented the 1974-75 budget to Legislative
+
"I was able to announce that in 1973-74 we would acheive the
$500 million surplus I budgeted for in last year's budget speech; and
that, despite a most turbulent year on the foreign exchange markets,
we would begin 1974-75 with available fiscal reserves of over $3,000
million after putting aside $800 million in the Mass Transit Railway Fund.
"So I was able to prepare this year's budget speech from a
position of some strength. But I had to consider the estimates of
revenue and expenditure for 1974-75 knowing that there were uncertainties
about our economic prospects over the next few months as a result of the
international oil crisis, and in the wider context of the likely cost
of our policies and programmes as they are being developed.
"Consequently, I decided that there could be no question of
my budgeting for a deficit in 1974-75. In order to bring the budget
into balance I had to do two things: first, trim the expenditure estimates
as submitted by departments down to $5,700 million, which still puts
them $900 million up on likely expenditure this year. And, secondly, I
had to put forward proposals to raise extra revenue of about $175 million
/after allowing .....