CO129-597-1 Estimates 1948 15-11-1946 - 12-6-1948 — Page 111

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Head 20. Miscellaneous Services

A new sub-head "Compensation" ($10,000)

has been inserted. It is usually necessary to mako compensation payments in the course of a year and a separate sub-head will be a great convenience.

Sub-head 23 "High Cost of Living, Rehabilitation and Special Allowances" has been increased by two million dollars as it is necessary to provide for a 12 instead of an 11-month period and this sub-head also now covers the Special Allowances granted to certain grades of the Service as a result of the recommendations of the Staff and Allowances Committee. As has boon explained earlier in this Memorandum an additional sum of five million dollars has also been included as a token sum to cover possible additional expenditure resulting from the recommendations of the Salaries Commission. It is considered that this potential liability should be reflected on the expenditure side of the budget.

A reduction of $700,000 has been made in the sub-head "Hotel Accommodation for Govornment Servants"

The desirability of providing working

capital for the new Municipality ponding the transfer of revenue which will ultimately be at the disposal of that body has been mentioned earlier in this Mamorandum. A new sub-head "Initial Grant to Municipality" (1 million dollars) has accordingly been inserted under this Head.

A new sub-head "Interest" ($10,000) has been included to cover interest payments in respect of the grant aided schools Provident Fund, etc. which have been wrongly debited in the past to Revenue Interest.

Provision for New Year Bonuses to Chinese employees has been doubled as the bonus was doubled this year in view of the increase in the cost of living.

A new sub-head "Refund of Revenue" has been insorted to provide for refunds relating to previous years. These in the past have been wrongly charged to Current Revenue.

A new sub-head "Rent of Requisitioned and Other Buildings" ($150,000) has been inserted.

Such

a sub-head is necessary to provide for Rent and Light charges in respect of requisitioned and rented buildings and this was inadvertently omitted from the Estimates for the current year.

The sub-head for" Telegrams" was previously very much under-estimated. The volume of telegraphie traffic still shows little sign of diminishing and additional provision for $80,000 has been made for 1947/48

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