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Wednesday, March 27, 1974
The new rates are effective retrospectively from 2.30 p.m.
on February 27. An order to this effect was signed by the Governor
this morning to replace the previous order in relation to the Financial
Secretary's original proposals.
Mr. Haddon-Cave explained that those who had renewed their
vehicle licences since February 27 at higher fees than the new revised
rates, would be entitled to a refund. "Those lucky enough to have
renewed at lower fees will not be required to pay anymore on this
occasion," he said.
In presenting his new budget proposals in the Legislative
Council, Mr. Haddon-Cave flatly denied accusations by his unofficial
colleagues that he was pre-empting the debate on transport policy by
introducing the higher fees before publication of the Transport Green
Paper.
This, he said, was never his intention. "I am only concerned
to raise extra revenue in a way which makes fiscal sense and which is
neutral in economic terms.
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Additional revenue was required in 1974/75, he explained,
and in order to raise what was required painlessly in terms of the
economy, I had to look to road users for at least two-fifths of the
extra $206 million required and a miscellany of other direct and indirect
taxpayers and users of services for the other three-fifths."
/Given our ......
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