- 2.
-
10
3.
Under the new system this total of
$13,500,000 would be added both to revenue and
expenditure and comparisons with previous years would
cease to have much meaning. Moreover, since the traffic
in petroleum is almost certain to disappear as soon as
peace is restored in China and the manufacture of tobacco
in the Colony may very probably be considerably reduced,
there would be a sharp fall in the apparent revenue and
expenditure of the Colony in future years so that again
comparisons would become meaningless. Incidentally
the Imports and Exports Department, being the department
responsible for the collection of most of the duties in
question, would suddenly find its apparent expenditure
increased twenty-fold or more and would appear as much
the largest spending department.
4.
In these circumstances it seems to me
preferable that the introduction of the new system
should in any event be postponed until the present
abnormal conditions have passed. Even in normal times,
however, its application to this Colony is liable to
produce a distortion of the true facts since drawbacks
on re-export are always large in proportion to the
total revenue of the Colony owing to its very large
re-export trade. The extent of such drawbacks is
moreover liable to frequent fluctuation owing to
changing conditions in China and while the present
emergency will pass in due course other changes may
succeed it which will again produce rapid fluctuations
in the amount of revenue collected merely to be paid
out again later as drawback. The system would therefore be liable to produce serious difficulties in
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