Error loading images metadata for page '21305424' metadata:

Article text

FRESH TAXATION.
-
Argus.
Amongst the articles which are likely to
be taxed by the Government for revenue
purposes are spirits, beer, tea, and tobacco.
The duty on imported spirits is now 12s a
gallon, and.the increase will probably be 2s
a gallon. The net Customs revenue last
year from imparted spirits was £653,000, so
that the increased duty would represent
an additional sum of about £109,000,
assuming that - there will be~ no decline
in the consumption. It is expected
that colonial spirits will not escape
an increased impost. The present duty
is 10) a'gallon on spirits distilled from
sugar and 8) a gallon on spirits distilled
from grain. The quantity of colonial spirit
manufactured from sugar is very small, as
shown by the fact that the duty last year
was only £5OO, but on spirit maunfactuied
from grain the duty amounted to about
£25,000. At present there is no excise duty
on beer, but in ISSI 2, when there was a
duty of 21 a gallon, the net Customs receipts
from this source were £95,000. If the duty
is re-imposed the revenue, it is estimated,
will be about £125,000 a year. The
duty on tea is now Id a pound, and if
it is raised to 21, as it is generally ex
pected, it will' cause au increase of
about £38,000 in- net revenue. Cigars will,
in all probability, be exempted,, from
additional taxation, ns a duty of. 6s -a
pound is considered heavy enough; but it-is
more than doubtful whether tobaceu, will be
placed in the same category. The duty is
now 3ta pound, and brought in a revenue
qf.£216,000 last year. An increase of. 1s a
pound will swell that-sum, to £228,000. An
increase in the stock tax is a certainty, but
it is uncertain whether it will result iu in
creasing the Customs revenue. Last year
the revenue collected on all classes of stock
amounted to £66,000, but as the tax is to be
made high enough to be almost prohibitive,
the sum mentioned will not, it is thought,
be much exceeded, if. exceeded at all,-
$