CO885-(11-12) — Page 419

PUBLIC

RECORD

PRICE

TUTTI

Reference -

C.O.882/12

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| PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE. LONDON

194

Taxation of professional classes.

13. For the professional classes we propose to take as our typical instance the case of a man, married, with four children, on an income of Rs.12,000 per annum. We have selected this figure as being that which we are informed would represent the income of a successful barrister or doctor under existing conditions, when both legal and medical practice have suffered from the general trade depression. It also represents the salary received by a number of higher officers in the public service, including medical officers of the Health Department, and by a number of managers of the larger and more prosperous sugar estates. The following state- ment has been furnished to us as indicating the probable allocation of expenditure for the typical case :-

Rent, Rs.125 per month ... Servants :

Cook

Maidservant

Nurse ...

Rs. 1,500

Rs. per month.

30

15

>

20

Boy

15

Gardener

25

Chauffeur

40

Dhoby...

25

170

Education

Running and maintenance of motor car

2,040 500 1,200

Food and petty household supplies

3,600

Water consumption

40

Lighting

300

Doctors and chemists' Bills

180

Clothes, renewal of household linen, etc. Sundries, recreations, tobacco, etc. Saving

1,200

240)

1,200

Total

12,000

Of this expenditure the total tax payable would work out approximately as follows:-

Rs.

Tenant tax (6 per cent. on rent)

90

Tax on car (assuming 14 h.p.)..

70

Petrol tax, and tax on several of car accessories, say

400

Import tax on food (at 10 per cent. of three-fourths

of total expenditure)

270

Import tax on clothes at 12 per cent.

144

60

1,034

Excise tax on tobacco

Total

195

In the case of a doctor, or attorney, there would be a licence duty of Rs.150, and if the taxpayer owned instead of rented his house, he would pay house tax amounting to about Rs.180, instead of tenant tax at Rs.90. The total tax payable might be increased therefore to Rs.1,274, representing 10 per cent. of the taxpayer's income.

Taxation of wealthier classes,

14. Excepting the wholly anomalous case of working-class incomes, a professional income of Rs.12,000 may be said to be at or near the highwater mark of taxation in Mauritius. With every successive Rs.1,000 of income the percentage claimed by the revenue rapidly diminishes. In the last example taken we have obtained a figure of Rs.180 house tax on an assumed house value of Rs.18,000. A house of twice this value would pay only Rs.360. A car of 20 horse power would pay only Rs.100, and the lax on its running would hardly be increased by more than Rs.100. A comparatively small increase might result from expenditure on food and clothes, but the opportunities for lavish expenditure of this nature are not great in Mauritius, and as regards food a rich man with large grounds and garden attached to his house would be less dependent upon imported and dutiable produce. It is diffi- cult to see how with an income of Rs.40,000 he could pay Rs.1,000 more tax than a professional man or Civil Servant on Rs.12,000. Viewed from every angle his position presents an eloquent con- trast with that of the artisan or field labourer. Rum, the drink of the very poor, is charged to Excise duty Rs.2.75 per litre; cham- pagne, the drink of the very rich, pays Rs.1.25; still wines from 30 cents to Rs.1.20. The cheapest cotton cloth pays 12 per cent. ad valorem, the most expensive silk no more than 20 per cent., or if of British origin only 12 per cent. The Indian peasant's dholl pays more heavily than lentils, barley, sago, tapioca, arrow- root, which enter into the diet mainly of the middle and richer classes, and tea of which he is a large consumer is taxed at twice the rate of coffee which he does not drink. His sole advantage is in his rice which paid for the year 4 per cent. ad valorem as Some attempt, compared with 6 per cent. for the finest flour. indeed, is made to differentiate between rich and poor in regard to licence duties, but it is a very half-hearted attempt. A fish- monger, hairdresser, or charcoal seller pays Rs.10 per annum, an attorney only Rs.150, an insurance company or an engineering shop with fifty assistants only Rs.300, a distiller only Rs.1,000. It is in the case of house tax, however, that the contrast is most glaringly presented. A field labourer's hut, built of wood, straw, and kerosene tins, worth at an outside figure Rs.15, pays R.1, or if divided into two rooms, Rs.2, in the one case 6 per cent., in the other 12 per cent., of its total value. A planter's or broker's mansion with several acres of ground and gardens, assessed at Rs.50,000, pays Rs.500 or 1 per cent. of its value.

13271

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341