42
HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
and rehabilitation of fire victims and of arrears of salary arising from the 1953 Salaries Revision.
Other major items were Defence, Miscellaneous Measures ($3,909,894), mainly as the result of taking over the remaining stocks of the Supplies Division of the Commerce & Industry Department after the cessation of government trading; Resettlement Department ($3,574,550), being the cost of a new Department formed during the year; and Post Office ($3,234,917), due to increased traffic and higher freight charges.
Development Fund expenditure incurred during the financial year 1954-5 was $1,488,501, and now totals $5,593,500 since the inception of the Fund. In addition, a sum of $842, 173 was paid in respect of housing loans and charged to advance accounts.
The Public Debt of the Colony on 31 March 1955 was as follows:
3% Dollar Loan (raised in 1934) 3% Dollar Loan (raised in 1940)
31% Rehabilitation Loan (raised in 1947-8)
$ 2,600,000
5,186,000
46,666,000
$54,452,000
The two Dollar Loans are each redeemable by twenty-five annual drawings, and the Rehabilitation Loan is covered by a Sinking Fund which on 31 March 1955 stood at $14,106,278, this being the market value of the sterling investments held on behalf of the Fund.
Loans from Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom amounted at the end of the financial year 1954-5 to $1,700,320. Of this sum, $1,333,120 is the amount received up to 31 March 1955 from the $48,000,000 which is to be loaned toward the cost of the development of Kai Tak Airport. The other loan, amounting to $367,200, is made under Colonial Development and Welfare Scheme D. 1967--- Loans to Fishermen for Mechanization of Craft. Of this, $319,391 has already been issued to fishermen. For further reference to Colonial Development and Welfare Schemes, see under the Review of the Year.
TAXATION
Earnings and Profits Tax, which is a substitute for the more orthodox type of income tax, was first imposed by the Inland Revenue Ordinance (Cap. 112) in 1947. It falls into
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