In a move to meet the current budget deficit of $4,000,000, the Palestine Government yesterday announced a new series of taxes and a rise in the income tax rate.
Custom and excise duties on intoxicants and tobacco will be raised as will the foes for registering mortgages. An estate tax ranging from one to fifty percent will shortly be introduced and surtaxes will be placed on all incomes over $8,500 annually. It is expected that the new measures will yield about $3,400,000. The income tax rise hits middle-class businessmen, prosperous farmers and the better-paid civil servants hardest.
The government’s announcement pointed out that among greatly increased expenditures arising from the war are: $4,000,000 to subsidize food production, cost-of-living bonuses for low-salaried civil servants; $2,160,000 for assistance to the citrus industry, and maintenance of wartime controllers’ departments and air raid precautions and civilian defense services. It is also hoped that the new taxes will enable a reduction of the grants made to the Palestine Administration by the British treasury, which have totaled $30,000,000 in the past three years.
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