REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE FOR 1909–10. (Hansard, 29 April 1909)

HC Deb 29 April 1909 vol 4 cc473-619 473

§ I now turn to a brief consideration of the Revenue and Expenditure of 1909–10, the main details of which are already in the hands of hon. Members. It will be seen that on the basis of existing taxation and of the estimates of expenditure already presented to Parliament, there is an anticipated deficit of £15,762,000. This amount is perhaps even larger than some Members may have anticipated, but this is attributable in part, at any rate, to the fact that the true revenue of this year from Customs and Excise has been largely anticipated. Towards the end of last year there were unusually heavy withdrawals of all dutiable commodities, particularly of spirits, owing to a not unnatural apprehension of increased taxes. The sum that was thus added to the revenue of last year must be taken away from the revenue for the present year and therefore has to be counted twice in the comparison. This to a great extent accounts for the very large and otherwise inexplicable drop in our estimate of the Excise of the year.

§ When we come to Customs, the apparent decline of one million pounds is due entirely to the same cause—the transference of £550,000 which properly belongs to the present year to the receipts of 1908–9, since the normal increase in the consumption of sugar, of tea and of tobacco will, in the opinion of my advisers, more than make up for a probable decline in the consumption of foreign liquor. I ought to observe that apart altogether from forestalments there was, I will not say an alarming, but an encouraging, diminution in the consumption of alcoholic liquors observable during last year. This was partly due to the very bad trade from which we suffered. But the figures of the last few years justify me in assuming that it was also attributable to the steady growth in the habits of sobriety amongst the masses of the people.

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§ Although there is every prospect that before the end of this financial year there will be considerable improvement in the trade of the country—the symptoms are all distinctly favourable—still I shall have to reckon upon a continuation of that steady growth in the habits of self-restraint amongst the people in the matter of indulgence in alcoholic liquors which has been such a very marked feature of the national liquor bill during the past few years, which is so gratifying to the reformer and so discouraging to the revenue. The Committee will bear in mind that a. comparatively small decrease in the consumption of a certain class of highly alcoholised liquor would account for a considerable drop in the revenue. These elements taken altogether, forestalments and increased temperance—account for the considerable diminution which I anticipate in this branch of the revenue for the coming year, and which adds greatly to my difficulties.

§ Before I leave this brief and cursory examination of the revenue side of my balance sheet I should like specially to call the attention of the Committee to the wonderful steadiness in the yield of the income tax. In spite of one of the worst years of bad trade which this country has experienced for many a year, the income tax has surpassed every prediction and realised nearly a million pounds in excess of the Budget Estimate. No tax could possibly be put to a more severe test, no tax could possibly rise from it more triumphantly than the income tax has during, the past year. Whatever else may be said about our fiscal system, there is this to be said for it, that it stands the strain much better than any other system in time of trade depression as far as producing revenue is concerned. So much for the revenue side.

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