47
$16,000,000 is accounted for by arrears of salary duo to officials in respect of their period of internment (paragraph 34) and claims for food requisitioned on the outbreak of hostilitics and afterwards scized by the Japanese (paragraph 16).
Noccer: 89,500,000 represents the estimated cost of the proposed
4 siders payments to non-interned local personnel (paragraph 21) and
ولد شده را هم مایع استان
the balance relates to miscellaneous claims in respect of the
Svece pre-occupaton period, including a heavy one of over $1,000,000,
in connection with drawback on duty on cigarettes.
24.
As a result of the increased taxation, details which were given in paragraphs 3 to 10 of Sir Mark Young's
53652/47 despatch No. 114 of the 9th May, 1947, and of the introduction
یا
53652/47
Iow 22900/44
of a form of income tax, it proved possible to present a balanced budget for the current financial year. The estimated surplus shown was nly $5,395, but for a number of reasons rovenuc was deliberately estimated on a very conservative basis. The figure of $16,000,000 inserted in respect of the Earnings and Profits tax was necessarily only a token figure as the standard rate of tax had not been fixed when the Estimates wero prosented to Legislative Council. In actual fact, receipts from the Earnings and Profits tax are expected to reach $30,000,000, though this may not all be paid during the current financial year, and total revenue up to the 31st October amounted to $88,303,083. There are, howevor, definite indications of a falling off in trade and it would be unwise to expect revenue to be as buoyant during the second half year as it has buon during the first. Nevertheless, it seems probable that the final revenue figure will be in the noighbourhood of $150,000,000 while the expenditure figuro, if the recommondations of the Salaries Commission are approved with retrospective effect, should work out at about $120,000,000. This would result in a surplus of $30,000,000.
25.
It is, I fear, quite impossible to vonture any t estimate of probable revenue and expenditure during the next five years.
The world situation is changing so rapidly and there are so many uncertainties that it is hardly possible to do more than to hazard the view that revenue will drop owing to a falling off in trade and that expenditure will tend to incrcase. As loan funds become fully committed it will be necessary to provide for more expenditure of a non-recurrent type in the curret budget. A case in point is the very necessary water conservation scheme to which reference was made in paragraph 31 of Sir Mark Young's despatch No. 114 of the 9th May, 1947. This is estimated to cost some $64,000,000 spread over a period of eleven years. A further item of expenditure is the projected new airport which is estimated to cost £4,000,000. In a separato despatch I am suggesting that, in order to permit work to be started at an early date, this Government would be prepared, pending a decision in regard to
to meet the any contribution from His Majesty's Government contractors' accounts up to the first $8,000,000, with the C possibility of bearing a greater percentage of the immediate expenditure later, if a satisfactory settlement is reached in regard to war expenditure. It is hoped that the sale of tho present aerodrome as building lots will bring in some £16,000,000, which will leave the incidence of the balance still undecided.]
26.
Then it seems certain that, unless this Government can, from its own resources, give a greater measure of support to the University, the latter will be forced to close down. A larger airport, too, will moan increased expenditure on staff and maintenance. Vast sums could be spent in Hong Kong on desirable development projects, but before any sericus development programme could be undertaken, it would bo necessary to supplement on a very considerable scale the very welcome grant of £1,000,000 already made under the Colonial Development and Welfare Act. Obviously the Colony will only
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.