XN000022-1973-03-06 — Page 3

04

-

Tuesday, March 6, 1973

This would make his department the second biggest revenue earner,

although nearly two-fifths of the expected revenue from rates in the new

financial year would go to the Urban Council to cover the cost of most of the

services it would provide.

Mr. Fry said that although rates had been criticized because of their

association with rents, and the fear that increased assessments would

mean increased rents, "they are a very sure tax, easy and cheap to administer

and very difficult to avoid."

"Rating assessments are based on rents and generally follow the trend

of rents, so that they do not in themselves provide a lead to increased rents,

he explained.

Assessments

If assessments were low, he added, a landlord gained by the greater

profit he could take out of the premises. "There is no good reason, therefore,

for landlords' attempting to use increased assessments as an excuse for increasing

rents this year."

Referring to the average overall increase in rateable values of just

over 40 per cent as a result of the valuation, the Commissioner said this figure

had been disclosed "merely to indicate the overall trend."

Ratepayers, he stressed, should not try to apply it to previous

assessments as a factor by which to measure the proper level of the new rateable

values.

"In regard to the lower-rental domestic accommodation," he said, "average

increases in rateable values have generally been in the order of 30 to 35 per

cent and up to 65 to 70 per cent for large flats, while the assessments for many

houses have doubled," he said.

/"Increases