XN000022-1974-03-27 — Page 10

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Wednesday, March 27, 1974

The new rates are effective retrospectively from 2.30 p.m.

on February 27. An order to this effect was signed by the Governor

this morning to replace the previous order in relation to the Financial

Secretary's original proposals.

Mr. Haddon-Cave explained that those who had renewed their

vehicle licences since February 27 at higher fees than the new revised

rates, would be entitled to a refund. "Those lucky enough to have

renewed at lower fees will not be required to pay anymore on this

occasion," he said.

In presenting his new budget proposals in the Legislative

Council, Mr. Haddon-Cave flatly denied accusations by his unofficial

colleagues that he was pre-empting the debate on transport policy by

introducing the higher fees before publication of the Transport Green

Paper.

This, he said, was never his intention. "I am only concerned

to raise extra revenue in a way which makes fiscal sense and which is

neutral in economic terms.

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Additional revenue was required in 1974/75, he explained,

and in order to raise what was required painlessly in terms of the

economy, I had to look to road users for at least two-fifths of the

extra $206 million required and a miscellany of other direct and indirect

taxpayers and users of services for the other three-fifths."

/Given our ......

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