CO885-(11-12) — Page 333

FOBLIC

PECORD OFFICE

Reference -

C.O.882/12

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BF REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOI TO

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the one administration and we consider that this administration should lie with the Customs Department rather than with the Treasury.

House Tax Branch.

14. This Branch although entirely distinct from the Inland Revenue Branch is also in the charge of the Superintendent of Inland Revenue who receives an allowance of Rs.2,000 per annum for the additional duty. The subordinate staff of the Branch is as follows:-

2 Inspectors

1 Controller

2 Ledger Clerks

3 Ledger Clerks

7 Bearers of Schedules

1 Correspondence Clerk

2 part-time Bearers of Schedules.

Salary.

Rs.

2,400 2,400

1,500-100-1,800 1,200-100-1,500

975

975 240

The work of the Branch consists of the control and administra- tion of the house tax, which is an annual impost charged at 1 per cent. on the capital value of all buildings used for human habita- tion of a capital value of more than Rs.500, and at a flat rate of R.1 per habitable room on all buildings assessed at a capital value of Rs.500 or less, subject to a maximum of Rs.3 per building on which this flat rate is charged. This tax, which was first imposed by Ordinance 24 of 1928, does not extend to the urban district of Port Louis or to the townships of Curepipe, Quatre Bornes, Beau Bassin, and Rose Hill, which however are empowered by similar ordinances to levy, and do in fact levy, a similar impost on build- ings and other immovable properties situated within these areas.

On the first introduction of the tax in 1929 the assessments were made by Government Inspectors, but as the result of the numerous appeals a complete reassessment of all properties was carried out by private firms of valuers. The revised reassessment has been generally accepted and appeals are now comparatively infrequent, those for the first eight months of the year 1931 numbering only 952. Applications for reassessment are now dealt with by the two Inspectors, who also fix the assessments of new properties, subject in both cases to the taxpayers' right of appeal to the Courts. This right, however, is seldom exercised as the great majority of the cases dealt with are those of small properties, mainly straw huts, on which the flat rate of duty is leviable and no question of valua- tion arises. The greater part of the time of the Inspectors is taken up with serving summonses and distress warrants upon small house- holders for arrears of tax. The Inspector has power to effect

seizures of movable property but most of the defaulters have no movables worth seizing, and if action is carried to the extent

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of obtaining a warrant of execution against the house itself the proceedings usually stop at the stage of appointing the house owner as legal guardian pending proceedings for sale and ejectment. The case never proceeds to this last extremity as there is no power to eject from the land and the cost of removing the house, which is usually no more than a straw but, may be many times more than the value of the house or than the amount of the arrears. inevitable outcome of this absurd legal situation is a large accumu- lation of arrears amounting to Rs.22,092 for the year 1929, Rs.107,066 for 1930, and Rs.203,042 for 1931, much of which will almost certainly prove to be irrecoverable. We have considered in chapter XIV the question of the future place of this duty in the financial system of the Colony and have recommended for reasons both of equity and of administrative convenience that all properties now subject to the flat rate of tax should be entirely exempted, and that a percentage rate of surcharge on properties above Rs.5,000 value should be levied according to a graduated scale. Inasmuch as the assessments below Rs.500 comprise no less than 42,835 of the total number (59,097) their elimination will result in the disappearance of almost the whole of the work of the outdoor officers of the Branch, i.e., Inspectors and Schedule Bearers (the latters' duties consisting wholly of the service of notices of assessment and payment) and of the greater part of that performed by the clerical staff. The maintenance of the reduced register of assessments required for the large properties, together with the issues of notices, which in the case of those properties could, well be sent by post, should not provide work for more than two whole-time clerks. These two clerks, on a pay of Rs.1,800 each, should be brought on to the General Service and attached to the section of the Secretariat which deals with the registration of papers and the routine despatch of correspondence. There is already no work of a technical or administrative character in connexion with the house tax. The assessments for the whole island are complete and should stand for several years to come. For such difficulties as may occasionally arise on an appeal against an assessment it would be more economical to pay a fee to an outside valuer than to retain a whole- time officer who would have insufficient work to keep him con- tinuously employed. Practically the whole cost of this branch will therefore be saved by our proposal for the abolition of small assess- ments and there will be a further consequential saving in the work of the District Courts and of the District Cashiers.

Fishery Branch..

15. This small branch of the Treasury has nothing to do with the collection or administration of revenue, its only function being that of fishery protection. It discharges this function by policing the fishing stations round the island to ensure (1) that no net fishing is carried on in the fishery reserves in Mahebourg Bay, and

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If