Looking forward to '69 Budget

By Tony Jaques

"Although the Budget talks about restructuring the economy it looks forward entirely to next year's budget," said Mr R. J. Tizard at Victoria recently.

"Tax restructuring will not take affect until next year and this means the public will talk about it now, and the unsure voters will be talking about it next year as well," he said.

Mr Tizard is the spokesman on economic affairs for the Parliamentary Labour Party.

"The gap between tax revenue and expenditure will rely on public loans, and this is why I say it is a gambler's budget," he said.

"The budget has reduced taxation, as was recommended by the Ross Committee Report, but it has not put taxes on services such as drycleaning and women's hair-dressing which the Committee recommended should be applied at the same time.

"They will let the surpluses run down until after the elections in 1969, and then they will slap on the indirect taxes. Labour was looking at the problem of prices as related to incomes," Mr Tizard said.

"We would make it necessary for each individual to justify any increases and it would be an offence to increase prices without notice.

"We will pursue a strict prices policy, but we must accept that with devaluation there will be some drops in the standard of living."

Another change the Labour Party would make would be to introduce more personal loans from savings banks for the purchase of consumer durables.

"The interest on this system, already working in Great Britain, would not be half of the interest on existing hire purchase schemes, and it would knock the top off that business," he said.

Asked if this lowering of interest rates would increase the price of imported goods Mr Tizard said: "One control would be the amount of the deposit. To take furniture for instance there would be little or no deposit on locally made furniture, but you would have to put down quite a large amount if you wanted mahogany.

"Whoever wins in 1969 there is the prospect of a rather stiff budget in 1970," said Mr Tizard. "This won't necessarily be in June, but it could be much earlier."