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PUBLIC

PECORD OFFICE

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Arference :-

C.O.882/12

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COFERIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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but are more difficult to maintain in a small community like that of Mauritius, where the Civil Servant might too often find himself in official possession of information affecting his own personal or family interests. In the case of these objections, many of which are exceedingly difficult for a stranger to the Colony to estimate at their proper weight, we feel that the question of an income-tax should be permitted to stand over until such time as it is possible to give to it much fuller consideration than the present emergency

allows.

28. While rejecting the expedient of an income-tax, however, we feel that it is to the class of potential income-tax payers that we must turn for the balance of additional revenue." Any further addition to the burden already borne by other classes is in our opinion unthinkable. The question becomes, therefore, purely one of machinery, and after very full consideration we have come to the conclusion that the best practical course is to make use of the existing machinery of the house tax. In the absence oa system which compels a taxpayer to declare, and if called upon to prove, the actual amount of his estate or income, any estimate of his tax- able capacity must necessarily be a matter of guess-work, and the guess will usually be an inference drawn from appearances, more particularly from the size and style of the house in which he lives. This method is, of course, far from infallible and, indeed, in some cases is sure to be wrong. It is, however, more likely to be right than wrong, especially if the capacity in question is to pay a sum which is very small in comparison with the minimum expenditure which must be required to maintain the external indications of wealth. If we were seeking to impose a charge on the scale of English income-tax or supertax we should perhaps hesitate to proceed on these lines in the present circumstances of Mauritius, when even the wealthiest classes of the Colony have suffered severely in the general trade depression, but we find it difficult to believe that the owners or occupiers of the spacious houses which cover so large an area in Moka, Curepipe, and other residential districts of the island have been reduced to such financial straits as to be unable to bear even a moderate addition to their present compara. tively light burden of taxation.

We propose therefore that a graduated tax should be levied upon the occupiers of all private residential houses in the island of the value of Rs.5,001 or over, the valuation for the purpose of this tax to be the existing assessment to house tax or, in the case of properties in the Municipality of Port Louis or the townships, the existing assessment to house rate. Although levied on the basis of the local assessments in the Municipality and the townships, the whole of the tax would be collected by the Treasury, and would fall into the general revenues, the existing house rates continuing to be raised locally as at present for purely local purposes. The new

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tax would be on the occupier, whether owner or tenant, and might be known as the occupier's tax to distinguish it from the existing We propose that the tax house tax and the local house rates. should be graduated according to the following scale :-

On houses assessed at a capital value of over Rs.25,000, 7 per cent. of the capital value.

On houses assessed at a capital value from Rs.20,001 to Rs.25,000, 5 per cent. of the capital value.

On houses assessed at a capital value from Rs.15,001 to

Rs. 20,000, 3 per cent. of the capital value.

On houses assessed at a capital value from Rs.10,001 to Rs.15,000, 2 per cent. of the capital value.

On houses assessed at a capital value from Rs.5,001 to Rs.10.000, 1 per cent. of the capital value.

We estimate that the tax will yield an additional annual revenue

of Rs.700,000, arrived at by the following calculations :--

No. of houses assessed

Total

amount

of tax. lls. 356,700

Range of ussessment.

to house tax or house rate outside the urban district of Port Louis.

Estimated total Rate of

of assessments. Rs.

tqz.

Per cent.

132

4,756,000

74

109

2,310,000

5

115,500

228

4,069,000

3

122,070

430 1,622

5,393,000 11,259,000

2

107,860

1

112,500

Total

Rs. 814,720

Over Rs. 25,000 Rs. 20,001-25,000 Rs. 15,001-20,000 Rs. 10,001–15,000 Rs. 5,000-10,000

We have to allow from this total a deduction from the assess- ments on business premises, including hotels and boarding houses, to which the tax would not apply. Against this deduction there is the addition to be made of the assessments on residential properties in Port Louis. We have no particulars from which to form an exact estimate of either the deduction or the addition, but it is unlikely that they will operate to reduce the total revenue to be obtained below Rs.700,000. In arriving at the estimated total of assessments we have worked upon a statement furnished to us giving the number of houses within every thousand range of asseRS- inent up to Rs.79,000, and for the purpose of our calculation have taken each house as being at the mean of the range, i.e., for houses between Rs.30,000 and Rs.31,000 we have taken each as Rs.30,500.

29. Although, as a substitute for an income-tax, this house assessment levy can be regarded as only a very rough and ready instrument of taxation, it will have the merit at least of bringing the distribution of the total burden of taxation between the different economic classes of the population into closer correspondence with

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