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XV.

Financial Consequences of a Single Duty of 30 francs.

IF, instead of taking the duty as it actually bears on consumption, we had calculated it at the uniform rate of 30 fr., we should have found-447,614,195 kilog. at 30 fr.=134,284,558 fr. The deficit for 1899 would have been 62,140,947 fr., or not quite 32 per cent., and only 45,715,442 fr., or 27 per cent. for 1900.

What, then, would have been necessary to obtain an equal yield from the duty? Simply to consume 654,750 tons in 1899, and only 567,000 tons in 1900, instead of 495,615 tons, being an increased consumption, at the rate of 46 per cent. for 1899, or 34 per cent. for 1900.

May we suppose that a lower duty would increase the consumption to the extent of 34 per cent.? It can be shown quite easily, we think, that, as far as quantities are concerned, an increase of 24 per cent. would be sufficient. It may be taken for granted-it is, in fact, the case--that all sugars which do not pay the full duty are sold for home consumption, instead of being exported. It is easy then to draw up the following table, where it is shown that the yield of the duty of 60 fr. falls from 122 millions to 80 millions, i.e., 34 per cent. from 1895 to 1899.

This is the natural consequence of the system. The duty is swallowed by the bounties.

With a fixed tax of 30 fr. per 100 kilog. and the bounties abolished, the revenue from the duty will keep pretty much on the same level with prospects of increase.

The taxpayer will no longer pay the private tax-we might say the feudal tax-for the benefit of some industrials, and in defiance of the principles of 1789; there will be only one tax, going—not into the pockets of private individuals-but into the State's Treasury.

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[graphic]

SUGARS.

Financial consequences of the application of a uniform duty of 30 francs

per 100 kilog.

We have not taken into account in this table the sugars used for vintage purposes, which pay a tax of 24 fr. only. They would have to be taxed at the uniform rate of 30 fr. In 1899, 32,468,600 kilog. were used for that purpose, which, multiplied by 6 fr. 1,948,000 fr., would show an increase of receipts of about 2 million frs.

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These figures then, which have been verified, show that if the 60 fr. tax were reduced to a uniform tax of 30 fr., the yield of the duty would only decline to the extent of 24 per cent.

An increase in the consumption of 133,000 tons of sugar, would be sufficient to make up the difference of 40 million francs. These 133,000 tons of sugar amount to 31 per cent. of the 409,000 tons of sugar on which the duty is levied now.

The reduction of duty in 1880 from 73 fr. to 40 fr. caused an increase of consumption of 30 per cent. at a time when the price of raw sugar was more than 58 fr.

We may safely take it that now when sugar values are moving in the vicinity of 30 fr., a reduced duty of 30 fr. would give in two years not only the same revenue but very probably a better one to the exchequer on account of the large increase in consumption which it would cause.

We arrive at the following conclusion :

Increase of home consumption by reducing the duty to a rate equivalent to the value of the product, i.e., 30 fr. and the suppression of all bounties and détaxes.

XVI.

The Position of Sugar with regard to Indirect Taxation in 1900.

At the moment of going to press we receive the Situation pour Contributions indirectes up to end of December, 1900. It entirely confirms what we have said in the previous chapters.

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