| Additional Registration Fee (ARF)
2.74 Let me briefly touch on some of the other
major taxes. First, there will be no further reduction
in ARF in this Budget. We have significantly lowered
the upfront cost of owning cars. Today, a medium-sized
car costs about half of what it did eight years
ago. Congestion is under control, with the help
of the ERP system. We will continue to monitor
the situation, but for now there is no need to
reduce ARF further.
Tobacco and liquor duties
2.75 I seriously considered raising tobacco duties,
but have reluctantly decided against it because
we are already seeing revenues declining, not
because people are smoking less but because smuggling
has gone up. On liquor duties, there will be no
changes for now because we have largely rationalised
them.
Slot machine taxes
2.76 There will be no changes to our gambling
taxes. But I will change the basis of slot machine
taxes. Hitherto, slot machines have been taxed
at 30% of deemed turnover. This turnover is estimated
based on the amount of coins in the cash box.
So we restrict machines to paying a maximum of
200 coins per win, in order that there will be
more coins in the cashbox and therefore more taxes
to collect! These rules were put in place in the
1950s but slot machine technology has clearly
moved on since then, as has the theory of taxation.
I will therefore change the basis of taxation
to 12% of actual turnover (which is equivalent
to 30% of deemed turnover), and remove the 200
coin payout limit.
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