asked the Minister for Finance if before entering upon the second stage of the Finance Bill he will circulate the estimate of the yield of Customs and Excise taxes under separate heads, as was done for the year 1923-24, and also the revenue derived from each of these taxes?
PRIVATE NOTICE QUESTION. - TAXATION YIELD.
I made inquiries into this matter since it was raised by the Deputy, and I find that the estimate of revenue contained in the White Paper that was issued at the end of the financial year contains all the information that was circulated last year. That is, it gives the amounts anticipated to be yielded by Customs duties, Excise duties and estate duties, and so forth. In regard to the yield of taxes which are being imposed for the first time I have given what information was available, I think, on the resolution, and I will repeat it or supplement it so far as possible in dealing with the relevant clauses of the Finance Bill. But it is to be understood that at the present stage those estimates are largely conjectural. In regard to the estimate of Customs and Excise duties generally, the estimate of the yield of a particular tax is a difficult matter, especially in the earlier parts of the financial year, and whilst in an estimate which bulks a number of taxes, errors may be cancelled off against each other, the more an estimate goes into detail the less informing, and the more misleading, it may possibly be. The final figures of the yield of separate taxes for 1920 and 1924 are not available, but the accounts are in course of audit by the Comptroller and Auditor-General, whose examination will be completed by August or September, when the audited details will be published in the White Paper. In regard to any particular taxes I am perfectly willing to give the Deputy any information I have, but I do not like to give a return which would be, perhaps, an incorrect return and an incomplete return at the present stage, and which may be, perhaps, used for statistical purposes here or elsewhere without having regard to its provisional character.
I have in my hand a copy of an estimate which was quite understood to be provisional, of the revenue expected to be derived from tobacco, sugar, molasses, etc., tea, wine and other articles, beer, spirits, entertainments, matches, etc. I do not remember having seen that in any White Paper.
I do not remember that, and I was not able to get any trace of that. If the Deputy will show me what the paper is like I will supply the same thing in regard to this year.
It is simply a type-written page that was circulated by the Minister for Finance at that time in response to queries.
I was not able to get any trace of that. Apparently, there was no copy available. I will supply it in general terms if the Deputy so desires. Perhaps I will supply it as a type-written sheet, and not as a printed paper, as they are very liable to be falsified.