HC Deb 23 April 1903 vol 121 c257

My estimated surplus is thus disposed of: £8,500,000 Income Tax, £2,000,000 Corn, £10,500,000 together; and this deducted from my surplus leaves me a margin of £316,000. I am now in a position to state my final balance sheet. The revenue, with the proposed alterations, will be as follows: Customs, £34,640,000; Excise, £32,700,000; Death Duties, £13,300,000; Stamps, £8,400,000: Land Tax and House Duty, £2,600,000; Property and Income Tax, £30,500,000; making a total tax revenue of £122,440,000; to which I add a non-tax revenue of £22,130,000, bringing the total revenue to £144,270,000. Now the expenditure to be set on the other side is as follows: Consolidated Fund services, £29,919,000; and Supply services, £114,035,000, making together £143,954,000, leaving a margin for contingencies of £316,000. I have now completed my task, and I thank the Committee most sincerely for the attentive and kindly hearing they have given me. I rejoice to think that my first Budget is not associated with imposition of taxation, but with remission of taxation. I propose to remit the duty which, small though it is, affects the greatest necessary of life. I have proposed a still larger reduction of direct taxation by taking 4d. off the Income Tax, and yet I have left the proportion of direct to indirect taxation higher than it was before the war. Besides this I am going to ask the House to strengthen the Sinking Fund, in view of our increasing liabilities, and in view of the present price of Consols. These are my proposals, and I confidently submit them to the judgment of the Committee, claiming for them not only that they proceed on sound and simple line, but also that they benefit all classes, both rich and poor.